Principal Software Engineer

Job Description

Job Title: Principal Software Engineer. Location: Redmond, Washington, USA

Responsibilities:

• Lead the architecture and technical strategy for Azure Key Management services.
• Design and develop secure, scalable, and highly available cloud-based cryptographic services.
• Drive end-to-end engineering execution, including architecture, implementation, code quality, and operational readiness.
• Develop solutions spanning control plane, data plane, secure hardware, and networking environments;
• Advance post-quantum cryptography readiness through architecture design and implementation planning.
• Partner with Azure teams, Microsoft Security teams, and HSM vendors to deliver integrated security solutions.
• Improve service availability, resiliency, scalability, monitoring, and diagnostics.
• Provide technical mentorship and architectural guidance to engineering teams.
• Drive long-term maintainability, extensibility, and engineering excellence across the platform.
• Support secure cloud services used by both Azure customers and internal Microsoft services.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 6 years of software engineering experience.
• Strong programming experience in one or more of the following:
  • C
  • C++
  • C#
  • Java
  • JavaScript
  • Python
• Ability to satisfy Microsoft, customer, and government security screening requirements.
• Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire and every two years thereafter.

Preferred:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of experience designing and building cryptographic systems.
• Deep understanding of cryptographic primitives and security protocols such as TLS and PKI.
• 15+ years of hands-on experience in security engineering and systems programming.
• Strong expertise in threat modeling, secure design, and vulnerability analysis;
• Expert-level C/C++ programming skills.
• Experience building and operating large-scale distributed cloud services.
• Experience with Linux and open-source software technologies.
• Experience with Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), including:
  • Intel SGX
  • AMD SEV
  • Similar enclave-based technologies
• Experience implementing or supporting post-quantum cryptography solutions.

Benefits and Compensation:

• US Base Salary Range: $142,800 - $274,800 per year
• San Francisco Bay Area and New York City Range: $188,000 - $304,200 per year

Additional Benefits:

• Comprehensive Microsoft employee benefits package.
• Potential eligibility for additional compensation and rewards programs.
• Career growth and leadership opportunities within Azure Security;
• Work on cloud-scale security systems protecting global customers.
• Opportunity to contribute to quantum-safe cryptographic technologies.

Work Environment:

• Hybrid work arrangement with 3 days per week in-office.
• Travel requirement: Less than 25%.
• Individual Contributor (IC5) role.
• Collaborate with teams across Azure Security and the broader Microsoft ecosystem.