Lead the design and evolution of cloud-native platforms, distributed systems, and infrastructure services at large scale. Define architecture across compute, networking, storage, datacenter, and AI infrastructure environments. Improve automation, lifecycle management, observability, reliability, security, and developer productivity. Guide technical strategy across engineering organizations while contributing to GPU, HPC, bare-metal, networking, and distributed computing platforms. Mentor engineers and foster technical excellence through architecture reviews and cross-organizational collaboration.
Overview
Responsibilities
Qualifications
Help shape the future of cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence platforms at unprecedented scale. Our team is building the foundational platform capabilities that power large-scale distributed systems, accelerated computing environments, and next-generation cloud services. You will work at the intersection of software, infrastructure, networking, and datacenter technologies to enable reliable, secure, and scalable platforms that support a broad range of business-critical workloads. You will collaborate with engineering teams across Microsoft to advance platform capabilities, accelerate innovation, and improve operational excellence across diverse infrastructure environments.
As a Principal Software Engineer, you will lead the design and evolution of cloud-native platforms, distributed systems, and infrastructure services that support service lifecycle management, resource orchestration, observability, reliability, and automation. You will help guide technical strategy across multiple engineering investments, contribute to architecture decisions involving compute, networking, storage, and platform services, and collaborate across organizations to deliver capabilities that improve platform efficiency and developer productivity. This opportunity will allow you to deepen your expertise in distributed systems and cloud infrastructure, expand your influence across engineering organizations, and contribute to innovations in Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure, graphics processing unit (GPU) platforms, high-performance networking, and large-scale datacenter systems.
Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We cultivate a culture grounded in respect, integrity, accountability, inclusion, collaboration, and continuous learning, enabling individuals and teams to grow, contribute, and make meaningful impact.
Responsibilities
- Lead the design, development, and evolution of cloud-native services, distributed systems, and platform capabilities that support large-scale production environments.
- Collaborate across engineering organizations to help define technical direction and architecture for platform infrastructure, cloud services, networking, storage, compute, and operational excellence investments.
- Guide the development of platform engineering capabilities that improve deployment automation, service lifecycle management, observability, reliability, scalability, and developer productivity.
- Advance software engineering practices including Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), testing, security, monitoring, and operational readiness throughout the engineering lifecycle.
- Contribute to the design and operation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure, High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms, bare-metal infrastructure, graphics processing unit (GPU) environments, and large-scale distributed computing systems.
- Collaborate on datacenter architecture and networking solutions, including rack-scale systems, network topology design, Ethernet fabrics, InfiniBand fabrics, Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), Smart Network Interface Cards (SmartNICs), Data Processing Units (DPUs), and accelerated computing platforms.
- Foster a culture of technical excellence through architecture collaboration, mentorship, knowledge sharing, design review participation, and support for engineering excellence across the broader organization.
Qualifications
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, 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. This includes passing the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Recognized for delivering technical solutions that span multiple engineering teams, organizations, or business areas.
- Demonstrated ability to simplify complex technical challenges and translate them into practical, scalable, and maintainable solutions.
- Proven ability to influence technical direction through collaboration, architectural leadership, technical mentoring, and cross-organizational partnerships.
- Knowledge of large-scale distributed systems, cloud-native platforms, or infrastructure services supporting business-critical production environments.
- Familiarity with Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure, High Performance Computing (HPC) environments, accelerated computing platforms, or large-scale graphics processing unit (GPU) deployments.
- Knowledge of datacenter architecture, rack-scale infrastructure, network topology design, and modern datacenter networking technologies.
- Familiarity with InfiniBand fabrics, NVLink, NVSwitch, Ethernet networking, Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), Smart Network Interface Cards (SmartNICs), or Data Processing Units (DPUs) supporting large-scale compute environments.
- Understanding of bare-metal infrastructure, hardware lifecycle management, fleet operations, infrastructure telemetry, or platform operations at scale.
- Proficiency in one or more modern programming languages such as Go, Rust, C#, Java, or Python.
#AIINFRA
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
Software 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.
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.
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What you need to know about the Chicago Tech Scene
With vibrant neighborhoods, great food and more affordable housing than either coast, Chicago might be the most liveable major tech hub. It is the birthplace of modern commodities and futures trading, a national hub for logistics and commerce, and home to the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association. This diverse blend of industry influences has helped Chicago emerge as a major player in verticals like fintech, biotechnology, legal tech, e-commerce and logistics technology. It’s also a major hiring center for tech companies on both coasts.
Key Facts About Chicago Tech
- Number of Tech Workers: 245,800; 5.2% of overall workforce (2024 CompTIA survey)
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- Research Centers and Universities: Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Institute of Technology, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
