Principal Engineering Manager, Minecraft

Overview

At Mojang Studios, the creators of Minecraft, we are on a mission to build a better world through the power of play.

Why play? Well, play is at the heart of everything we do. It's the blocky backbone of our games, the core of our development philosophy, and even the origin of our name. From the relentless experimentation of our endlessly inspiring community to the classrooms where Minecraft has become an essential teaching tool, play is the bedrock of our existence.

We enable millions to create and play together, connect people across the globe, and foster a community that is among the most active and passionate in the world. Our community is global and incredibly diverse. When we are developing anything within our franchise, we keep this in mind. We want everyone to not only feel included in Minecraft, but also to see themselves in what we make. Our goal is for the Mojang Studios team to be as diverse as our community.

In this role, you will lead the Engineering Systems team for Minecraft Bedrock, owning the build pipelines, CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Deployment) systems, test frameworks, and DevOps infrastructure that hundreds of engineers depend on daily. You will drive system reliability, simplicity, and observability while building and developing a high-performing team. If you are passionate about developer productivity, DevOps excellence, and enabling game teams to ship with confidence, we encourage you to apply.

In the end, it's the people of Mojang Studios that make this place truly special. When you join, you'll find yourself in the company of incredibly bright, warm, and creative individuals - all united and working toward a single goal. Come help us reach it!

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Engineering Systems team - recruit, coach, and retain top talent; set clear direction and priorities; foster a culture of ownership, transparency, and continuous improvement.
• Own the reliability and performance of Minecraft's build and CI/CD systems - drive full observability (monitoring, telemetry, alerts), reduce system complexity, and hold the team accountable to KPIs including availability, MTTD (Mean Time to Detect), MTTR (Mean Time to Repair), build/test time, and failure rate.
• Architect engineering systems end-to-end - make decisions across GitHub, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, CMake, FastBuild, VCPKG, test frameworks, device provisioning, and release pipelines.
• Partner across the studio to unblock engineering teams - ensure developers can validate locally, merge to main with confidence, and ship continuously; drive early socialization of changes.
• Drive DevOps and SRE best practices - automate everything, work incrementally, detect issues quickly; establish and support engineering best practices covering simplicity, modularity, testability, and observability.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's 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, or Python
  • OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience leading engineering systems, DevOps, or build/release infrastructure teams in a large-scale software environment.
• Technical depth in CI/CD pipelines, build systems, test automation, and infrastructure-as-code (e.g., GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, CMake, YAML).
• Demonstrated ability to take an ambiguous, complex area and drive clarity - figuring out what needs to be done, educating others on what/why/how, and leading through implementation.
• Track record of building and developing high-performing engineering teams, including hiring, coaching, and managing performance.
• Experience with game development or large C++ codebases and the unique build/test challenges they present.
• Familiarity with DevOps/SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) metrics (DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) metrics, availability, MTTD, MTTR) and a data-driven approach to improving developer productivity.
• Experience with device provisioning, multi-platform testing (console, mobile, desktop, server), and managed test infrastructure.

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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:
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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.