Principal Software Engineering Manager

Overview

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 centred on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world.

This is a development team which provides leadership, direction, and accountability for Security features in K8s multicloud environments and deployment tools and platforms, CICD, AI/ML, Virtualization and infrastructure, and secured development standards. You will help conduct business reviews and operate our production services. Strong collaboration skills will be required to work closely with other engineering teams to ensure services and systems are highly stable, performant, and meet the expectations of internal and external customers and users. 

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineering Manager to help us design, architect and build large scale platforms, cloud services and engineering systems. You will work in collaboration with other Engineers, Researchers, Data Scientists and Architects to continue to learn and build your skill sets on how to innovate the design approach of said pipelines and services.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, inclusion, and continuous learning.
• Set technical vision and strategy for security features in K8s multicloud, deployment tools, and platform engineering.
• Oversee project delivery, resource allocation, and operational excellence for live site reliability and performance.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Product, Research, Data Science, Architecture) to deliver cohesive, end-to-end solutions.
• Drive adoption of modern engineering practices, including design/code reviews, telemetry-driven decisions, and integration testing.
• Mentor engineers at all levels, providing guidance on career development, technical growth, and best practices.
• Engage with stakeholders to align team objectives with business priorities and communicate progress to leadership.
• Ensure compliance with Microsoft and customer security standards, including background checks and regulatory requirements.
  
  

Qualifications

Skills & Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 3 years in people management roles.
• Proven track record of building and leading high-performing engineering teams in enterprise environments.
• Deep expertise in cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP), distributed systems, and secure development practices.
• Kubernetes (K8s) expertise is a must-have requirement for this role; candidates without strong production experience in K8s will not be considered.
• Strong coding background (C, Python, or equivalent), with hands-on experience in platform development and automation.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
• Experience with project management, resource planning, and operational oversight.
• Outstanding communication, negotiation, and decision-making abilities.
  
  

Preferred Experience

• Multicloud architecture and deployment.
• Scripting (PowerShell, Bash), CI/CD pipeline management.
• Large-scale data, operational, or network architecture. Experience with Microsoft Cloud background check and compliance processes.
  
  

PrincipalEngineeringManager, EngineeringLeadership, CloudEngineering, Kubernetes, DevOps

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.

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