Microsoft has an exciting opportunity for a Principal Software Engineer in the Microsoft Specialized Clouds Teams Phone team, focused on building, deploying, and operating Teams Phone services within Air Gapped and Sovereign Cloud environments.
Teams Phone is a foundational service within Teams, enabling customers to associate traditional phone service into the Teams product and collaborate with more devices and more coworkers. In highly regulated and mission-critical environments, these capabilities must be delivered with strict requirements for security, compliance, reliability, and operational excellence.
As a Principal Software Engineer, you will lead the design, development, and evolution of Teams Phone services that power critical communication experiences across sovereign, air-gapped, and compliance-sensitive environments. You will partner with engineering teams across Microsoft to deliver scalable, secure, and resilient distributed systems while enabling feature parity with Public Cloud offerings.
In this role, you will drive technical strategy, influence architecture decisions, and lead complex, multi-year engineering initiatives spanning multiple teams and organizations. You will own the full software development lifecycle, from system design and implementation to deployment, performance optimization, and continuous improvement. As a senior technical leader, you will champion engineering excellence, mentor others, and help shape a culture of innovation, quality, automation, and operational rigor.
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 architecture and design strategy for complex systems, driving scalable, resilient, secure, and cost-efficient solutions through technical leadership, innovation, and data-driven decision making.
• Drive end-to-end delivery planning and execution for complex services, ensuring security, compliance, resiliency, scalability, and operational readiness throughout the product lifecycle.
• Investigate pre-production and production issues, implement, and deploy fixes.
• Participate in an on-call rotation (typically 24/7 for one week every 6-8 weeks) within a secure facility.
Qualifications
Required/Minimum 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:
Security Clearance Requirements: Candidates must be able 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:
- The successful candidate must have an active U.S. Government Top Secret Clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) based on a Single Scope Background Investigation (SSBI) with Polygraph. Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. Failure to maintain or obtain the appropriate U.S. Government clearance and/or customer screening requirements may result in employment action up to and including termination.
- Clearance Verification: This position requires successful verification of the stated security clearance to meet federal government customer requirements. You will be asked to provide clearance verification information prior to an offer of employment.
- Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
- Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S. citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customer and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport, or other approved documents, or verified US government Clearance
Preferred/Additional Qualifications
- Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ 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 10+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
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 or related field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience (coding in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python) OR equivalent experience.
- Active U.S. Government Top Secret Clearance with SCI based on a Single Scope Background Investigation (SSBI) with Polygraph.
- U.S. citizenship verification (must be a U.S. citizen due to citizenship-based legal restrictions).
- Ability to meet Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire and every two years thereafter.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements and provide clearance verification prior to offer.
- Experience designing, building, and operating distributed/cloud services for sovereign, compliance-sensitive, or air-gapped environments.
- Participation in on-call rotation (typically one week every 6-8 weeks) within a secure facility; ability to investigate and fix production/pre-production issues.
- Master's Degree in Computer Science and 8+ years engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree and 10+ years engineering experience (preferred alternative experience levels).
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.
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