Principal Software Engineer

Overview

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to provide hands-on technical leadership for Microsofts Forensics platform, a highly sensitive, large-scale distributed data platform supporting critical security and investigative scenarios.

The engineer will work across the Forensics Pipeline, from Substrate-based data capture and services through Azure COSMIC-based processing and Synapse data pipelines. The role requires deep distributed-systems expertise and the ability to reason about reliability, scalability, data quality, security, privacy, operational efficiency, and cost across an end-to-end production system.

We are looking for an AI-native engineer who makes AI a core part of how they design and build software. This includes using AI to accelerate code development and comprehension, explore designs, prototype solutions, automate testing, diagnose production issues, analyze telemetry, improve developer workflows, and increase overall engineering velocity and quality. The engineer will also help identify opportunities to apply AI to previously difficult engineering problems while maintaining engineering judgment, security, privacy, and accountability for AI-generated artifacts.

This engineer will be expected to own complex technical areas end to end, develop and review production code, drive architecture and design decisions, lead work across organizational boundaries, and raise the technical capabilities and engineering practices of the broader team. These expectations align with Microsofts Principal-level guidance around broad technical depth, cross-team leadership, architecture, mentorship, and proactive ownership of complex technical challenges.

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

• Lead AI-native engineering practices across the team, using AI throughout the software development lifecycle to accelerate design, coding, testing, debugging, code comprehension, documentation, and operational analysis.
• Identify and develop new ways to use AI to solve complex engineering problems, improve developer productivity, automate repetitive engineering work, and increase the speed and quality of software delivery.
• Champion the responsible use of AI-generated code and engineering artifacts, ensuring appropriate human review and adherence to security, privacy, quality, and Responsible AI practices.
• Provide technical leadership for the Forensics Pipeline, driving architecture and engineering decisions across large-scale distributed data-processing systems spanning Substrate, Azure COSMIC, Synapse, storage, routing, transformation, and related platform components.

Own complex engineering problems end to end, from requirements and architecture through implementation, validation, deployment, telemetry, production operation, and continuous improvement.

• Design and build high-scale, resilient, and cost-efficient distributed systems, considering throughput, capacity, reliability, failure isolation, disaster recovery, performance, security, privacy, and COGS.
• Remain deeply hands-on with production code, primarily using C# and Python, including implementation, debugging, testing, code reviews, performance analysis, automation, and production troubleshooting.
• Work extensively within the Substrate codebase, understanding complex dependencies and safely introducing changes into mature, business-critical infrastructure.
• Develop and operate large-scale data-processing solutions using Azure COSMIC and Synapse, including transformation, orchestration, storage, capacity management, deployment, and operational troubleshooting.
• Establish end-to-end observability and measurable engineering outcomes, using telemetry to understand reliability, latency, capacity, operational health, and production behavior.
• Lead architecture and design reviews, identify technical risks early, evaluate alternatives and tradeoffs, and produce clear technical proposals for complex or ambiguous engineering problems.
• Drive engineering excellence, including secure-by-design development, automated testing, code quality, safe deployment, maintainability, operational readiness, incident prevention, and production support.
• Diagnose difficult production problems using telemetry and code and data analysis; lead root-cause investigations and ensure learnings translate into durable engineering improvements.
• Collaborate across Substrate, Azure, security, and partner teams, driving technical alignment and resolving complex cross-team dependencies.
• Mentor and develop other engineers through design discussions, code reviews, technical guidance, experimentation, and sharing of engineering best practices.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors 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++, 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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Masters 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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• OR Bachelors 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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• OR equivalent experience.

• Demonstrated AI-native software engineering experience, with substantial use of generative AI across coding, design, testing, debugging, code comprehension, documentation, analysis, or developer-productivity workflows.

• Proven ability to identify and apply AI to engineering problems, going beyond basic code completion to materially improve engineering velocity, quality, automation, or problem solving.

• Solid understanding of the responsible application of AI in software engineering, including human accountability for AI-generated code and artifacts, validation, security, privacy, and appropriate engineering controls.

• Solid software engineering proficiency with C#/.NET and Python, including the ability to design and implement production-quality systems.

Demonstrated experience designing, developing, and operating large-scale distributed systems or cloud services.

• Experience with cloud-scale data processing, including distributed processing, data pipelines, storage systems, streaming or event-driven architectures, and high-volume telemetry.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical projects across multiple components and teams, particularly when requirements or technical approaches are initially ambiguous.
• Solid understanding of system architecture, including scalability, availability, resiliency, capacity planning, performance, failure isolation, security, maintainability, and cost.
• Experience developing and operating production services, including telemetry, monitoring, incident investigation, debugging, deployment, live-site response, and root-cause analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to make effective technical tradeoffs, communicate architecture and engineering decisions clearly, and influence engineers and stakeholders beyond the immediate team.
• Experience leading design and code reviews and raising engineering quality through technical guidance and mentoring.

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.