Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft

Microsoft

Software Engineering
USD 139,900-274,800 / year
Posted on Oct 28, 2025

Principal Software Engineer

Multiple Locations, United States

Save

Share job

Date posted
Oct 28, 2025
Job number
1900995
Work site
0 days / week in-office - remote
Travel
0-25 %
Role type
Individual Contributor
Profession
Software Engineering
Discipline
Software Engineering
Employment type
Full-Time

Overview

Azure Core is the engine of Microsoft’s cloud, powering infrastructure that forms the foundation for cloud computing. Within Azure Core, the Compute Platform team builds the control plane and lifecycle management for key resources, including virtual machines, scale sets, images, and serverless containers. The usage of compute resources is growing rapidly as more customers adopt and scale on the cloud.


As a Principal Software Engineer on the Compute Platform team, you will develop services and components that manage tens of millions of Linux and Windows virtual machines with billions of transactions every day. This role focuses on scalability and privacy/security for high-value transactions, initially targeting financial markets. You will work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment alongside skilled engineers, technical leads, and executives, with opportunities to make a significant impact on Azure customers worldwide.


This position offers the chance to build new skill sets, develop deep knowledge in cloud technologies, and work with advanced solutions such as Zero-Knowledge Rollup (ZK Rollup). You will collaborate with peers to deliver innovations that digitally transform industries and operate at planet scale.


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.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to C, C++, Rust, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
    • OR equivalent experience.
  • 1+ years experience designing complex software services and components.
  • 1+ years experience building services hosted in cloud.

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.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to C, C++, Rust, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
    • OR Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to C, C++, Rust, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
    • OR equivalent experience.

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $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

Microsoft will accept applications and processes offers for these roles on an ongoing basis.

#azurecorejobs

Responsibilities

  • Partners with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements and features for a set of scenarios.
  • Leads the design and building distributed services that are secure, scalable, reliable, and performant.
  • Creates, implements, optimizes, debugs, refactors, and reuses code to establish and improve performance and resilience, maintainability, effectiveness, and return on investment (ROI).
  • Defines customer success metrics and engineer services to meet and exceed the goals.
  • Leverages subject-matter expertise of cross-product features and partners with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., project managers) to drive multiple group's project plans, release plans, and work items.
  • Leads identification of dependencies and the development of design documents for a product, application, service, or platform.
  • Proactively seeks new knowledge and adapts to new trends, technical solutions, and patterns that will improve the availability, resilience, efficiency, observability, and performance of cloud services while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scale and shares knowledge with other engineers.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.
Industry leading healthcare
Educational resources
Discounts on products and services
Savings and investments
Maternity and paternity leave
Generous time away
Giving programs
Opportunities to network and connect

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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.