Principal Software Engineer

Overview

The AKS Arc team builds AI infrastructure, container management and orchestration services designed for the hybrid environments, enabling cloud-powered features for containerized workloads anywhere outside of Azure Cloud. This team delivers container solutions on premises, at the edge, multi-cloud and across diverse infrastructures, helping organizations simplify the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications.

As a Principal Software Engineer on the AKS Arc team, you will design and deliver large-scale solutions that enable seamless management of customers' Kubernetes clusters and AI workloads. This position provides the chance to work on cutting-edge technologies shaping the future of AI/ML inferencing, retraining with LoRA, reinforced learning (RL), cloud-native computing, while gaining deep expertise in Azure services, the Kubernetes management plane, and the broader cloud-native OSS ecosystem. You will collaborate with teams that prioritize technical excellence, innovation, and continuous learning, contributing to reliable and intuitive solutions for customers worldwide.

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.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver scalable, resilient, and secure AI infrastructure, Kubernetes, OSS and cloud-native solutions.
• Design, implement, optimize, debug, refactor, and reuse code to enhance performance, maintainability, and effectiveness of Kubernetes and related components on Azure and open-source platforms.
• Integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities into product development for smarter solutions and increased developer efficiency.
• Participate in on-call rotations to monitor existing products, troubleshoot issues, and ensure timely customer support.
• Mentor and guide engineers to foster technical growth and collaboration.
• Balance pragmatism with long-term vision, continuously refining processes and innovating new solutions to enable AKS and AI everywhere.
• Proactively learn and adapt to emerging trends, technologies, and patterns to improve availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance, while ensuring consistency in monitoring and operations at scale.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, Go, Rust, C++, C#, Java, 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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Masters Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, Go, Python, Rust or Bash

• OR Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 15+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, Go, Python, Rust or Bash

• OR equivalent experience.

• 10+ years of experience with at least 2 of the following:

• Linux or similar Unix-like environments used on servers containers, Kubernetes, or other Cloud Native technologies, Azure or other cloud management technology.

• 5+ year(s) experience with Kubernetes, Go programming language (Golang), and cloud-native technologies.

• 5+ years experience with workload and container orchestration using Kubernetes or a similar platform.

• 5+ years experience working in Linux environments.

• 3+ year(s) of experience with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) tools and processes, such as Azure DevOps, GitHub, or GitLab.

#azurecorejobs

Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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.