Software Engineer II

Microsoft is a highly innovative company that collaborates across disciplines to produce cutting-edge cloud technology that changes the world. The Cloud Server Infrastructure team within Microsoft Azure builds and operates the hardware and software foundation powering Microsoft’s global cloud services. The platform spans massive scale across global datacenters, requiring continuous innovation in reliability, efficiency, performance, automation, and serviceability. 

The team partners across hardware, firmware, software, and operations to improve cloud infrastucture availability and enable next-generation systems. Microsoft also contributes to industry efforts such as Project Olympus and the Open Compute Project to accelerate open hardware innovation.  

We are looking for a highly motivated Software Development Engineer to build and operate large-scale cloud infrastructure systems that power Azure. In this role, you will design and develop software that manages and monitors cloud hardware across hyperscale environments, driving improvements in reliability, availability, and performance. 

You will work across the full stack—from low-level Linux-based device software to cloud-scale service orchestration—enabling intelligent decision-making on hardware health signals and improving overall cloud hardware availability and performance. This role provides an opportunity to influence next-generation datacenter architecture and contribute to industry ecosystems such as the Open Compute Project, aligning with Microsoft’s open hardware innovation strategy.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain Linux-based service and device management stack using C, C++, Python, and systems programming languages.
• Build and optimize distributed systems and cloud services for monitoring and managing hardware at hyperscale.
• Implement hardware interface programming (SPI, I2C, GPIO, UART) and support board bring-up, firmware, and Linux boot flows including U-Boot and kernel integration.
• Develop and enhance device telemetry, health monitoring, hardware health signal processing, and automated remediation workflows.
• Drive live-site excellence through monitoring, debugging, root cause analysis, repair loops, and continuous service reliability improvements.
• Collaborate with hardware, firmware,  platform, and partner teams to deliver end-to-end solutions across hardware-software boundaries.
• Translate customer and production feedback into feature enhancements, bug fixes, reliability improvements, and supportability investments.
• Leverage and contribute to open-source ecosystems such as OCP and Linux where appropriate, bringing relevant best practices into Microsoft platforms.
• Demonstrate end-to-end ownership for components and features, including design, implementation, validation, deployment, and production support.
• Apply strong debugging and problem-solving skills in complex distributed, embedded, and hardware-software integrated environments.
• Deliver secure, maintainable, and high-quality code with clear design documentation, unit/integration coverage, and operational readiness.
• Participate actively in code reviews, design reviews, technical decision-making, and cross-team alignment.
• Balance feature delivery with reliability, scalability, observability, performance, and long-term supportability.
• Communicate clearly with peers, stakeholders, partner teams, and customers; convert ambiguity into actionable engineering plans. 

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ 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:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field; OR M.S. with 4+ years of industry development experience; OR B.S. with 8+ years of industry development experience.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ systems programming and software design fundamentals.
• Experience with Python and scripting languages for automation, diagnostics, and tooling.
• Solid understanding of operating systems concepts, Linux/Unix environments, and system-level debugging.
• Experience with multi-threaded, concurrent, and user-mode programming.
• Knowledge of user-kernel interactions, system interfaces, and hardware-software integration concepts.
• Working knowledge in one or more of the following: C#, .NET or other Object-oriented languages is desirable.
• Experience with Azure services and database query language such as KQL/Kusto is desired but optional.
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills in production or complex integration environments. \Effective written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain technical findings clearly. 
• Experience with Linux kernel development, device drivers, or low-level system components. 
• Exposure to firmware development, BMC, Rack Manager, platform management, or embedded systems.
• Familiarity with distributed systems, microservices, cloud services, or infrastructure automation.
• Experience with telemetry pipelines, observability tools, monitoring, alerting, and live-site diagnostics.
• Knowledge of datacenter hardware architecture, hardware health management, and operational workflows.
• Understanding of security fundamentals such as secure boot, authentication, authorization, certificate handling, and secure update flows.
• Experience contributing to open-source projects or engaging with industry communities such as Linux and OCP. 

Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 per year.