Software Engineering IC5

Overview

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Our mission is to enable secure tenant creation, centralized configuration management, seamless onboarding of existing tenants, and discovery of unknown organizational tenants — all while meeting the strict governance and security requirements of large organizations. We are building the next generation of Tenant Governance solutions for large-scale enterprises, including Fortune 500 organizations. As part of our team, you will help design and develop systems that simplify and secure the management of multiple tenants across complex environments.

Join the Tenant Governance team and be part of a fast-paced environment where your work makes an immediate impact. You’ll take on technically complex challenges in cloud, security, and large-scale governance that will push your problem-solving skills to new levels. Along the way, you’ll gain a great learning opportunity, working with cutting-edge technologies and some of the most security-conscious organizations in the world.

Responsibilities

We are looking for a Principal Engineer with deep experience designing and operating high-throughput, multi-tenant cloud services, and a demonstrated ability to define end-to-end architectures across service, data, security, reliability, and operational boundaries. You will apply broad technical depth to make sound architectural trade-offs, establish durable engineering patterns, anticipate failure modes, and guide teams toward secure, scalable, diagnosable, and maintainable solutions. Responsibilities include:

• Own the architecture and technical direction for large-scale distributed services, defining system boundaries, interfaces, data flows, and evolution strategies that support long-term business and platform needs.
• Drive best-in-class engineering across services by establishing reusable patterns and ensuring components are modular, secure, reliable, diagnosable, actively monitored, and designed for independent evolution.
• Apply broad technical depth across distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, data, identity, security, and developer platforms to evaluate trade-offs and influence decisions that span multiple teams and technology layers.
• Translate customer and partner needs, product signals, and operational data into coherent technical strategies, architecture roadmaps, and pragmatic investment priorities.
• Lead the resolution of complex cross-service and LiveSite issues, identify systemic failure modes, and drive architectural improvements in automation, resiliency, scalability, observability, and cost efficiency.
• Serve as a technical leader across the organization by mentoring engineers, raising design and code quality, leading rigorous architecture reviews, aligning stakeholders, and influencing engineering direction beyond the immediate team.

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field AND 8+ years of technical engineering experience designing systems and coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances.

If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.

Insights from previous hires

Top skills: Architecture, Distributed Systems

Common previous titles: Tech, Principal Software Engineer, Principal Software Developer, Principal Software Development Engineer, Staff Software Engineer, Lead Software Engineer, Senior Specialist, Cloud Solution Architect, Tech Support Engineer, Senior Physical Design Engineer