Principal Software Engineer

Overview

As a Principal Software Engineer on the Microsoft Security Exposure Management (MSEM) team, youll help build the platform that empowers every organization to see, understand, and reduce their security risk before attackers can exploit it. Sitting at the heart of Microsoft Securitys Securing AI pillar, youll design and ship the services that continuously discover assets, map attack paths, quantify exposure, and help drive remediation across an increasingly AI-driven threat landscape. Youll write production code across the full stack, tackle problems of scale and data richness that few environments can offer, and partner closely with other organizations to ensure customers can adopt AI confidently and securely. This role is a rare opportunity to grow as an engineer while directly advancing Microsoft Securitys mission to make the world a safer place.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities -

• Design and ship features end-to-end in our scalable, high-throughput distributed systems.
• Own your components from design discussion through deployment, and learning what it takes to run services reliably in production at Microsoft scale.
• Own the quality, performance, and operational health of what you build, using strong testing, telemetry, and thoughtful error handling so defenders can trust the exposure insights we deliver.
• Contribute to shaping the scope and technical direction of your projects by helping turn ambiguous problems in attack-path analysis, asset discovery, and AI-driven risk into well-defined, achievable actions.
• Collaborate across teams to reach shared goals and growing into an engineer others rely on for support and clear thinking.
• Work at the leading edge of Securing AI, gaining hands-on experience with the novel security challenges of an AI-driven threat landscape and the massive, rich datasets that make MSEM a rare place to grow as an engineer.

Qualifications

Qualifications Required -

• 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.

Qualifications: Other Requirements -

• 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.
• 6+ years designing, building, and operating scalable cloud services or distributed systems (Azure/AWS/GCP) with production ownership and CI/CD integration.
• 6+ years programming in C, Java, Go, or Python.
• 8+ years developing high-throughput, multi-tenant services with strong fundamentals in concurrency, resiliency, error handling, testing, and maintainability.
• Experience with live-site operations, telemetry/monitoring, incident response, and performance optimization of production systems.
• Experience with large-scale data processing or pipelines (e.g., Kusto/Azure Data Explorer, Spark, or similar) to turn high-volume signal into actionable insight.
• Familiarity with security engineering concepts (authentication, data protection, access control, secure coding) and/or interest in AI/ML and the security challenges of AI systems.

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.