Imagine a world with virtually unlimited storage, accessible anytime, anywhere, from any device. A world where individuals, businesses, researchers, and organizations can securely store, access, analyze, and collaborate on data on a global scale.
Microsoft Azure Storage is making that vision a reality. Azure Storage is Microsoft's massively scalable, highly distributed, and ubiquitously accessible cloud storage platform, powering critical workloads for customers around the world. As Azure continues its rapid growth, we are building the next generation of storage infrastructure designed to manage Exabytes of data today and scale toward Zettabytes in the future.
The Azure Storage NPI SKU Qualification & Performance team plays a critical role in enabling this growth. Our team develops the software platforms, automation systems, telemetry pipelines, and performance analysis frameworks used to qualify and validate next-generation Azure Storage hardware technologies before they are deployed into production. We work across servers, SSDs (solid state drives), networking components, firmware releases, operating systems, and platform innovations to ensure every Azure Storage SKU meets Microsoft's standards for performance, reliability, scalability, and operational excellence.
We are seeking a highly motivated Principal Software Engineer to architect our qualification strategy, performance validation, automation, service reliability, and engineering excellence across Azure Storage's next generation infrastructure platforms. This engineer will drive cross-organizational initiatives spanning Storage, Compute, Networking, Platform Engineering, and hardware partners while influencing technical direction across multiple teams.
This is a Microsoft role onsite 3 days a week in Redmond, Washington.
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 qualification and onboarding of next-generation Azure Storage infrastructure and technologies
- Drive performance, scalability, reliability, and fleet-readiness validation for hyperscale storage systems
- Develop automation and tooling to improve qualification efficiency, observability, and operational excellence
- Partner across engineering organizations to deliver complex cross-functional initiatives and solve large-scale technical challenges
- Provide technical leadership through architecture guidance, incident resolution, mentorship, and engineering best practices
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C#, C++, Python, and Java
- 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, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C#, C++, Python, and Java
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C#, C++, Python, and Java
- OR equivalent experience
- Experience with:
- Designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems or cloud services
- Performance engineering, benchmarking, capacity planning, or large-scale infrastructure validation
- Azure Storage, distributed databases, storage systems, SSD/HDD (solid state drive/hard disk drive) technologies, or hyperscale infrastructure
- Hardware qualification, firmware validation, server platforms, or datacenter technologies
- Telemetry and analytics platforms such as Kusto, Power BI, Azure Monitor, or similar technologies
- Windows kernel debugging, crash dump analysis, Windows storage stack troubleshooting, and knowledge of Windows storage architecture including Storport, Miniport drivers, and I/O (input/output) subsystem internals
#azurecorejobs
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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, plus 6+ years of technical engineering experience; equivalent experience accepted.
- Coding experience in C#, C++, Python, and Java or comparable programming languages.
- Ability to pass Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements.
- Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.
- Master’s degree in a related technical field plus 8+ years of technical engineering experience, or bachelor’s degree plus 12+ years; equivalent experience accepted.
- Experience designing, building, and operating large-scale distributed systems or cloud services.
- Experience with performance engineering, benchmarking, capacity planning, or large-scale infrastructure validation.
- Experience with Azure Storage, distributed databases, storage systems, SSD/HDD technologies, or hyperscale infrastructure.
- Experience with hardware qualification, firmware validation, server platforms, or datacenter technologies.
- Experience with telemetry and analytics platforms such as Kusto, Power BI, Azure Monitor, or similar technologies.
- Experience with Windows kernel debugging, crash dump analysis, Windows storage stack troubleshooting, and Storport, Miniport drivers, and I/O subsystem internals.
Microsoft Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Microsoft and has not been reviewed or approved by Microsoft.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is presented as broadly competitive overall, with clear role/level/location variation and an emphasis on using posted ranges and band information for apples-to-apples comparisons.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are described as a standout, highlighted by a strong 401(k) match structure and immediate vesting, plus additional plan features for tax-advantaged saving.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-oriented benefits are portrayed as a meaningful strength, with substantial paid parental leave and added supports like back-up care and adoption/surrogacy assistance.
Microsoft Insights
What We Do
At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world.
