Principal Software Engineering Manager

In Windows Experiences, we are accelerating innovation, strengthening brand preference, and driving growth across Microsoft services and platforms. As we deliver on many key priorities, we are committed to delivering available, reliable, resilient, secure, observable, and cost-effective services across our broader organization.

We orchestrate deep engagements in areas like incident management and prevention, service operability and efficiency, and customer-obsessed culture. Our culture of growth mindset and empowerment are central to who we are and how we work.

As a part of this team, you'll help shape and influence adoption of best practices and standards for Windows services, research and develop solutions complex technical challenges, and have opportunities to make a huge impact on the experiences we continuously deliver to millions of customers around the world.

We are looking for an experienced Principal Software Engineering Manager with a solid track record of running services at scale with quality. We are a fast-paced team, and need a seasoned leader with the energy, ability, and drive to hit the ground running and leading. This EM must be a strong people manager who can motivate and develop individuals, teams, and partners to adapt and move quickly within our organization.

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 and continuously develop a high-performing engineering team, owning and steering execution of high-quality services
• Own team health, career development, and performance management, fostering a culture of inclusion, mentorship, growth mindset, and continuous learning.
• Partner across multiple product groups to apply subject-matter expertise in distributed systems design practices, interactions between cloud technology layers and components, basic dependencies at scale, and the code that defines infrastructures.
• Lead by example and mentor others to produce extensible and maintainable code used across products.
• Collaborate with a team of architects to research, define, and prove standards and best practices that can be applied to improve system, platform, and/or product development and operations across the business.
• Drive continuous improvements in the architecture, code, features, operations and comprehensive use scenarios of products by leveraging end-to-end technical expertise.
• Provide technical leadership in planning, reviews, and meetings throughout product development and operations cycles.

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, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 6+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration.
• 6+ years experience working with large-scale distributed systems (e.g., cloud computing providers, SaaS services, etc., ideally with millions or billions of users)orsimilarly complex environments.

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:

• 7+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration.
• Awareness of, and ability to reason about, modern software & systems architectures, including load-balancing, queueing, caching, distributed systems failure modes generally, microservices, and so on.
• 7+ years of design, build, or implementation of distributed service health - Specifically desired is a deep understanding and familiarity with MELT (Monitoring, Events, Logging, Tracing) design and implementation patters for large-scale distributed services.
• Previous experience as a technical lead that can drive engineering solutions.
• Proven ability to design and develop loosely coupled, componentized, and durable software that can be easily extended and meets requirements on time.
• Ability to deal with ambiguity and understand key business needs in line with competing priorities and apply the right technology and implementation to the solution.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and debugging skills with a solid understanding of object-oriented design, coding patterns, and testing practices.
• Experience in agile, DevOps, building micro services, and mobile is a plus.

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: ;br>
Microsoft will accept applications for the role until October 28, 2025.

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. 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.

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