Microsoft

Microsoft

Posted via Microsoft Careers

Principal Software Engineer Manager

Posted Oct 2, 2026

Role at a glance

Job function
Software Engineering & IT Software Engineering
Salary
$188K – $304.2K/yr
Location
Redmond, Washington, United States
Work arrangement
On-site
Employment
Full-time
Experience
6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or...
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages...

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Role Summary

AI-generated

The Principal Software Engineer Manager leads the modernization, security, and evolution of validation services used by Windows and Devices engineering teams. The role works across engineering organizations to improve validation capabilities, service adoption, and quality outcomes.

What You'll Do

  • Drive the strategy and roadmap for validation services supporting Windows and Devices engineering teams.
  • Partner with engineering teams to establish validation best practices and promote scalable service adoption.
  • Lead validation service product strategy, architecture, and technical direction to meet current and future requirements.
  • Design secure solutions that protect internal services and customer data, and drive modernization plans.
  • Mentor engineers and serve as a Designated Responsible Individual, including on-call monitoring for service degradation, downtime, or...
  • Improve service availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance, and promote consistent monitoring and operations...

Generated from the employer's posting. Verify important details before applying.

View full posting

Qualifications

Required: Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python; or equivalent experience.

Preferred

  • Preferred: Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 12+ years of technical engineering experience coding...
  • 6+ years of people management experience.
  • Experience with hardware and OS bring-up and bringing new hardware to market.
  • Experience building and shipping production-grade software or services.
  • Track record of designing, deploying, and operating large-scale services with high availability.
  • Postmortem analysis and authoring for live site issues.
  • Experience with build systems and validation systems for hardware, software, and cloud services.

Original job description

Content provided by the employer

Overview

Windows + Devices powers experiences for users worldwide, building the platforms and products that create meaningful experiences across Microsoft and leading the Windows and Surface products through deep partnership across the company and with OEM partners. The Windows Engineering System is the backbone that lets Windows engineers design, code, build, validate, and ship at massive scale, securely and with high quality. 

The Quality & Validation team focuses on building engineering systems and delivering quality and validation services to be utilized by all these Windows products. We develop and manage scalable software services which use the power of automation and AI to provide this service to our Windows partner teams. 

As a Principal Software Engineer Manager, you will be responsible for leading the modernization, security, and evolution of our validation services. You should be passionate about quality, scale, and cloud services.  Focusing on system and security fundamentals you will have the opportunity to drive quality improvements broadly across Windows. You will partner across Windows and Devices engineering teams to drive improvements in validation capabilities and adoption of engineering best practices. You will collaborate with stakeholders across organizations to align requirements, improve quality outcomes, and help shape the future direction of validation services. 

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
  • As a manager, deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring. 
  • Driving the strategy and roadmap for validation services supporting Windows and Devices engineering teams. 
  • Partnering with engineering teams to establish and promote validation best practices and scalable service adoption. 
  • Partners with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., project manager, technical lead) to set the product strategy for our validation services. 
  • Leads architecture and technical direction for validation services, ensuring they meet current and future customer requirements. Establishes processes to measure and ensure system architecture is effective and meets the current and future needs and requirements of the service. 
  • Understands the importance of security and designs solutions which are highly secure to protect our internal services and customer data. 
  • Leverages subject-matter expertise of cross-product features with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., project managers) to drive our validation service modernization plans. 
  • Holds accountability as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI), mentoring engineers on the team, working on-call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions. 
  • Proactively seeks new knowledge and adapts to new trends, technical solutions, and patterns that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of our services while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scale and shares knowledge with other engineers. 


Qualifications

Required/Minimum 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.

Additional or preferred qualifications

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:

  • 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. 
  • 6+ years people management experience. 
  • Experience with hardware and OS bring up, bringing new hardware to market. 
  • Experience building and shipping production grade software or services. 
  • A track record of designing, deploying, and operating large scale services with high availability. 
  • Postmortem analysis and authoring for live site issues.  
  • Experience with build systems, and validation systems for hardware, software, and cloud services.

 

 

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Software Engineering M5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay


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.

Microsoft

About the company

Microsoft

Large Enterprise

Microsoft is a global technology leader that empowers individuals and organizations to achieve more through innovative software, services, and devices. Founded in 1975, the company is best known for its flagship products like the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office suite. In addition to personal computing, Microsoft is a leader in cloud computing with its Azure platform, providing a range of solutions for businesses to enhance productivity and efficiency. With a strong commitment to sustainability and accessibility, Microsoft continues to drive technological advancements that shape the future of work and learning.