Xbox's Creator Onboarding, Release, and Support (CORS) organization is on a mission to become the essential publishing platform for all game creators. Within CORS, the Package Ingestion & Distribution (PID) team owns the critical backend pipeline that transforms a developer's uploaded game package into a certified, published, and downloadable Xbox title serving millions of players worldwide.

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineering Manager to lead the PID engineering team. In this role, you will manage a team of approximately 10 full-time engineers plus vendor staff, building and operating the high-throughput, globally distributed systems that power package upload, processing, signing, and delivery for Xbox. You will drive technical strategy across the full publishing pipeline, champion operational excellence and security, and grow the careers of engineers working on some of the most mission-critical backend services in gaming.

This is a people management role where you will model, coach, and care embodying Microsoft's culture, defining team objectives, enabling success across boundaries, and investing in the growth of every individual on your team.

We are looking for a seasoned engineering leader who is passionate about distributed systems, high-throughput backend pipelines, and building resilient teams. The ideal candidate brings deep experience in people management, large-scale service operations, and technical strategy and is energized by the opportunity to lead the critical infrastructure that delivers every Xbox game from developer to player.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead, coach, and grow a backend engineering team of approximately 10 full-time engineers plus vendor staff, building the high-throughput systems that power Xbox's publishing pipeline reestablishing strong people management practices including career development, performance coaching, and team ceremonies
• Own the technical vision and engineering roadmap for the end-to-end package ingestion pipeline from upload and validation through encryption, signing, and CDN delivery driving modernization toward next-generation packaging formats and reduced-latency processing
• Drive production reliability and security excellence across mission-critical backend services, championing Secure Future Initiative (SFI) compliance, encryption and certificate management, DRI on-call practices, and BCDR readiness
• Lead AI-driven innovation in the publishing pipeline, applying disciplined AI adoption and engineering automation to reduce end-to-end latency, improve global upload parity, and accelerate the creator publishing experience
• Collaborate across the publishing ecosystem with Product Management, TPM, peer engineering teams, and downstream partners in CDN, Partner Center, and Xbox Live runtime to deliver a seamless, reliable experience for creators worldwide

Required/minimum qualifications

• Experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems, high-throughput data pipelines, or content delivery platforms
• Familiarity with packaging technologies, build/release engineering, or CI/CD infrastructure at scale
• Experience with Azure cloud services, storage systems, and globally distributed architectures
• Track record of building inclusive teams and fostering psychological safety in engineering organizations
• Experience managing teams through leadership transitions with empathy and stability
• Experience with security compliance frameworks, encryption/signing pipelines, and secure-by-design engineering practices

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Software Engineering M5 - 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

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.