Principal Software Engineer

Do you want to help organizations understand, govern, and optimize what they invest to secure their digital estate

Security is one of the fastest-growing areas of enterprise investment. As customers adopt AI-powered and consumption-based security services at scale, they need a clear, unified way to see what security costs, how it is consumed, and how to optimize it, so they can invest with confidence and maximize the value of every dollar they spend on protection.

We build the platform and experiences that power billing, cost management, and FinOps for Microsoft Security, spanning the core platform and the customer-facing experiences that give customers transparent, trustworthy, and actionable cost visibility. We partner deeply across Microsoft Security, commerce, and cost management teams to deliver one consistent story across every experience.

As a Principal Software Engineer, you will set the technical vision and architecture for the platform and experiences that power billing, cost management, and FinOps across Microsoft Security. You will solve the hardest, most ambiguous problems, drive technical strategy across teams, and serve as a trusted technical leader for the organization.

• Define the technical vision, architecture, and multi-release roadmap for the Security FinOps platform and experiences.
• Lead the design of complex, cross-team systems for metering, cost aggregation, reporting, and customer experiences.
• Drive engineering strategy for reliability, scale, security, and cost efficiency across the portfolio.
• Establish and champion engineering standards, patterns, and best practices adopted across teams.
• Partner with product, commerce, and cost management leaders to align technical strategy with business outcomes.
• Mentor senior engineers and act as a credible technical voice in executive and cross-organizational reviews.
• Drive the strategy for adopting AI across the software development lifecycle—coding, testing, and end-to-end (E2E) development—and establish responsible, effective practices for AI-assisted engineering across teams.

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, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, or Python, OR Master’s Degree AND 6+ years, OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• • Deep experience with commerce, billing, monetization, cost management, or FinOps (e.g., metering, usage, invoicing, consumption-based models).
  • Demonstrated experience architecting, shipping, and operating large-scale distributed cloud services.
  • Track record of driving technical strategy and influencing engineering direction across multiple teams.
  • Experience with cloud commerce platforms, platform/API design, and cost/usage reporting and analytics.
  • Understanding of the Microsoft Security portfolio, service monetization, and the FinOps Foundation framework.

Software Engineering IC5 - 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.