Back-End Principal Software Engineer

Security represents the most critical priorities for our customers in a world awash in digital threats, regulatory scrutiny, and estate complexity. Microsoft Security aspires to make the world a safer place for all. We want to reshape security and empower every user, customer, and developer with a security cloud that protects them with end to end, simplified solutions.

We are seeking a visionary and technically deep Back-End Principal Software Engineer to join the Azure Foundational Security Services Team to lead the design and development of foundational security services that provide identity, access management, secrets protection and key management services across our cloud platforms. This role is pivotal in shaping the next generation of secure compute and key management systems that underpin trusted workloads at hyperscale. You will drive architecture and implementation of secure identity issuance, scalable secrets protection, access management, and hardware-backed cryptographic services. These systems are critical to enabling secure service-to-service communication, confidential computing, and compliance with the highest security standards.

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. In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

This Hybrid Position is located at our Microsoft office in Redmond, Washington. Relocation support will be provided, and successful candidates will need to relocate or reside within 50 miles of the field location.

Responsibilities:

• Architect and build secure, scalable, and highly available services for identity issuance, secrets protection, and HSM-based cryptographic operations.
• Lead cross-functional engineering efforts across platform, security, and infrastructure teams.
• Define and enforce standards for security, availability, and compliance across foundational services.
• Drive the design and delivery of hardware-backed secrets management and secure compute solutions.
• Mentor engineers and influence technical direction across teams and projects.
• Collaborate with product and compliance teams to align infrastructure with security, quality, and AI initiatives.
• Ensure lifecycle management of machine and service identities with robust security controls.

Qualifications:

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or related technical discipline AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C++, C#, Rust, Go, or Python
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 6+ years of experience designing, building, and operating scalable, highly available cloud services or distributed systems on platforms such as Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or comparable cloud environments, with production ownership and CI/CD pipeline integration.
• 6+ years of experience applying distributed systems concepts such as concurrency, conflict resolution, and consensus algorithms to build resilient and maintainable back-end architectures.
• 6+ years of experience building systems with emphasis on reliability, durability, and operational efficiency, including experience with live site operations, incident response, and performance optimization.

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.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 10+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR Master's 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 equivalent experience.
• 6+ years of experience designing, developing, or maintaining secure software systems, with applied knowledge of authentication, data protection, access control, and secure coding practices

Software Engineering IC5 - 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: ;br>
Microsoft will accept applications and processes offers for these roles on an ongoing basis.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form .

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

#MSFTSecurity #Azure #FoundationalSecurityServices