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Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft· Software Engineering
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Redmond, WA$142.8k - $274.8kfull-timePosted 2mo ago

About the role

Principal Software Engineer for Store Database team within Microsoft’s Substrate Storage Fabric, building and operating core data infrastructure for cloud-scale storage and Microsoft 365 data services, including AI/Copilot-enabled experiences.

Responsibilities

  • Lead architecture, design, and delivery of large-scale storage platform capabilities that power Microsoft 365 data services, driving improvements in scalability, reliability, performance, and storage efficiency.
  • Drive technical strategy and execution across complex initiatives spanning distributed databases, storage systems, data protection, capacity planning, and next-generation platform modernization.
  • Partner with engineers, product managers, security, compliance, and dependent service teams to define technical direction, resolve cross-system challenges, and translate business and customer needs into durable technical solutions.
  • Lead the design of AI-native systems and distributed storage architectures, applying modern engineering practices that leverage AI-assisted development for system design, implementation, testing, debugging, and operations.
  • Establish technical standards and guardrails that ensure AI-enabled solutions remain secure, reliable, maintainable, and cost-efficient at hyperscale.
  • Use telemetry, experimentation, and data-driven analysis to identify bottlenecks, improve service health, optimize resource utilization, and guide engineering investments and architectural decisions.
  • Lead live-site excellence by driving root-cause analysis, resiliency improvements, operational automation, incident prevention, and safe deployment practices for mission-critical services running at global scale.
  • Mentor engineers and technical leaders across the organization, raise engineering standards, build shared technical judgment, and foster a culture of ownership, innovation, inclusion, and customer obsession.

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.

Skills

Required:Distributed storage systemsSystem architecture & scalability
Nice to have:AI-native system design
Last updated Jul 30, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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