Back-End Principal Software Engineer

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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. The Microsoft Security organization accelerates Microsoft’s mission and bold ambitions to ensure that our company and industry is securing digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds in our customers’ heterogeneous environments, as well as ensuring the security of our own internal estate. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their authentic selves each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world.

Microsoft Entra ID Team (previously known as Azure Active Directory) is under Microsoft Security organization and is at the center of Microsoft’s cloud strategy. It consists of critical authentication, authorization, and directory services that are used by the millions of Azure, Office 365, XBOX and Windows users worldwide. The backend directory store is at the heart of Microsoft Entra ID architecture. It hosts millions of tenants and billions of identities. It serves billions of requests per day in the stacks powering core authentication and programmability. Our team is evolving the backend directory store to address the needs for the next decade and we are looking for a Back-End Principal Software Engineer to help us do that. You will have an opportunity to lead the work on the latest technologies in storage and distributed systems and apply innovative algorithms for solving problems at scale and high performance. Our culture promotes diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion and is clearly reflected in all the things we do. Our team has an effective sense of accountability and provides its members with many opportunities for learning and career growth.

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.

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.

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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

  • OR equivalent experience.

• 3+ years of experience designing, building, and operating scalable, highly available cloud services or distributed systems on platforms such as Azure, AWS, GCP, or comparable cloud 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.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ 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.

• 5+ years of experience designing, building, and operating scalable, highly available cloud services or distributed systems on platforms such as Azure, AWS, GCP, or comparable cloud environments.

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

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• Design, build, and evolve hyper-scale distributed services: Architect and implement cloud-native systems that are scalable, secure, and resilient, supporting millions of users globally.

• Own the full software development lifecycle: Lead projects from ideation through deployment and support, including planning, design, coding, testing, and monitoring.

• Drive engineering proficiency and reliable practices: Champion clean code, automated testing, CI/CD, and documentation standards to ensure high-quality, maintainable software.

• Enhance product security, performance, and reliability: Proactively identify and resolve issues related to system vulnerabilities, latency, and fault tolerance.

• Lead live-site operations and incident response: Improve service availability and operational efficiency through robust monitoring, alerting, and on-call practices.

• Mentor and collaborate across teams: Provide technical leadership, share knowledge, and foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

• Demonstrate customer empathy and curiosity: Use customer feedback and telemetry to guide decisions, ask thoughtful questions, and continuously seek to improve the user experience.