Senior Site Reliability Engineer - Azure Storage

The Azure Storage NPI SKU Qualification & Performance team plays a critical role in enabling this growth. We are responsible for validating and qualifying the next generation of Azure Storage hardware and platform technologies, including servers, SSDs, networking components, firmware releases, and platform innovations before they are deployed into production. Our team develops automated validation frameworks, performs large-scale performance and reliability analysis, investigates complex qualification issues, and partners closely with engineering teams and hardware vendors to ensure every Azure Storage SKU meets Microsoft's high standards for performance, reliability, scalability, and operational excellence.

As a Senior Site Reliability Engineer - Azure Storage, you will serve as a technical leader responsible for driving qualification strategy, performance validation, production readiness reviews, and complex investigations spanning software, hardware, firmware, and platform layers. You will work at the intersection of cloud services, storage systems, performance engineering, automation, and reliability engineering to influence the future of Azure Storage infrastructure at hyperscale.

This role offers a unique opportunity to solve challenging technical problems, influence engineering decisions across multiple organizations, and help bring next-generation technologies into production. You will collaborate with talented engineers across Microsoft and industry-leading hardware vendors while driving innovations that directly impact the reliability and performance of one of the world's largest cloud storage platforms.

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

• Lead end-to-end qualification and production readiness validation for new Azure Storage hardware SKUs, platforms, SSDs, networking devices, and firmware releases
• Drive qualification strategy, test planning, execution, and sign-off recommendations for Azure Storage deployments
• Serve as a technical escalation point for qualification failures, performance regressions, reliability issues, and production-readiness concerns impacting Azure Storage deployments. Own complex investigations across software, hardware, firmware, and platform stacks to identify and resolve qualification blockers
• Design and develop scalable automation frameworks that improve qualification coverage, efficiency, quality, and engineering productivity. Analyze large-scale telemetry, benchmark data, and fleet health signals to identify performance trends, bottlenecks, risks, and optimization opportunities.
• Monitor qualification pipelines and proactively identify risks impacting production onboarding, deployment schedules, and service readiness. Perform root cause analysis for hardware, firmware, platform, and software issues discovered during qualification and drive corrective actions to closure.
• Validate SKU readiness against Azure Storage performance, reliability, scalability, and operational requirements
• Partner with Storage, Compute, Networking, Platform, and vendor engineering teams to resolve critical qualification, reliability, and performance issues. Influence qualification standards, test methodologies, performance thresholds, and operational best practices across Azure Storage NPI programs

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration

• 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, * Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field AND 6+ years technical experience in service engineering, performance engineering, or site reliability engineering

• 6+ years technical experience working with large-scale cloud or distributed systems

Site Reliability Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $160,200 - $261,000 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.