Software Engineering II

Are you ready to shape the future of cloud computing? Join Azure Compute, the engine behind Microsoft's fastest-growing and most profitable cloud business! We power millions of virtual machines that run everything from enterprise-scale services like Bing, Skype, and SQL to massive multiplayer gaming sessions and lightning-fast computational workloads.

As the backbone of Microsoft's Cloud OS, the Azure Compute team builds fault-tolerant distributed systems atop commodity datacenter hardware. Our mission? To deliver a seamless infrastructure where resources feel limitless, elastic, and always available.We're tackling bold challenges across multiple domains, and your impact will be felt across the stack:Scaling and Density Innovations: Help us push the boundaries of cluster scale and VM density. We're optimizing service footprints, reducing fragmentation, and maximizing compute core utilization. We're also expanding Azure's container capabilities (Docker/Hyper-V Containers) and building the next-gen microservices for compute service management.Reliability and Performance Breakthroughs: Be part of the team that's reimagining how fast and reliable on-demand compute can be. We're engineering architectural transformations across Azure Compute, Host OS, Networking, Storage, and more - aiming for deployment speeds that leave competitors in the dust. Our approach blends algorithmic ingenuity, protocol redesign, and smart pre-processing to deliver compute instances in seconds.

We're a results-driven team that works vertically through the entire stack to deliver order-of-magnitude improvements. If you thrive in high-impact environments, bring extensive technical depth, love solving complex problems, and enjoy collaborating across disciplines-this is the place for you.

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

• Leads discussions for and owns the architecture of a products/solutions and creates proposals for architecture by testing design hypotheses and develop complex design specifications.

• Leads by example within the team to produce extensible, maintainable, well-tested, secure, and performant code that adheres to design specifications. Continuously improves code performance, testability, maintainability, effectiveness, and cost, while learning about and accounting for relevant trade-offs.

• Identifies dependencies and incorporates them into the development of design documents for a product, application, service or platform. Actively identifies other teams and technologies to leverage, how they interact, and where their own system or team can support others.

• Collaborates with and guides appropriate internal (e.g., product manager, privacy/security subject matter specialist, technical lead) and external (e.g. customer escalation team, public forums) stakeholders to determine and confirm customer/user requirements

• Acts as a designated responsible individual (DRI) and guides other engineers by developing and following the playbook, working on-call to monitor a system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions. Alerts stakeholders as to status and initiates actions to restore system/product/service for simple problems and complex problems when appropriate.

• Leverages their subject-matter expertise to partner with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., technical program managers) to drive a workgroup's project plans, release plans, and work items. Organizes work into smaller sets of tasks as part of an overall roadmap. Guides other members for project estimation and escalates issues that might cause a delay.

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• OR equivalent experience.

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

• Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 5+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• OR equivalent experience.

• The ability to multi-task while balancing short-term and long-term needs is essential.

• Ability to learn and grasps concepts quickly in a fast-paced environment is critical to success

• Proven design and development experience with C#/Java/C/C++/ and systems programming.

#azurecorejobs

Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $100,600 - $199,000 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 $131,400 - $215,400 per year.

Microsoft is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We develop, license, and support a wide range of software products, services, and devices that help individuals and businesses realize their full potential.

Our flagship products include the Microsoft 365 productivity cloud, Windows operating system, Azure cloud platform, and Dynamics 365 business applications. We are also a leader in areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, developer tools, and gaming through Xbox and Game Pass.

With operations in more than 190 countries and over 220,000 employees worldwide, Microsoft is committed to responsible innovation, inclusive economic growth, and sustainability. We work closely with governments, industries, and communities to ensure that technology serves the public good and helps address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

As we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2025, we continue to look forward—investing in AI, cloud, and quantum computing to shape the future of work, education, and society at large scale.