We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer Manager to lead a team responsible for the foundational technologies that power modern Windows application experiences. This role owns key investments across the WinUI framework runtime, compositor integration, platform performance, reliability, and engineering fundamentals. You will partner closely with product management, design, developer platform teams, and strategic application partners to drive platform quality, adoption, and innovation.
This is an opportunity to shape the technical foundations used across Windows experiences while building deep engineering expertise in graphics, composition, performance, and quality systems.
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
Platform Ownership & Execution
- Own the health, performance, reliability, and evolution of core WinUI runtime and platform foundation investments.
- Drive delivery of platform strategy through effective sprint planning, prioritization, and execution across engineering squads.
- Establish and maintain quality gates, evaluation frameworks, benchmarking systems, and engineering standards.
- Partner across WinUI, Windows App SDK, .NET, operating system infrastructure, and developer tooling teams to deliver cohesive platform improvements.
- Identify and prioritize technical debt, architectural investments, and platform modernization opportunities.
Technical Leadership
- Provide technical leadership on platform architecture, runtime design, performance boundaries, and engineering tradeoffs.
- Guide teams in developing scalable, maintainable, and high-performance platform components.
- Drive improvements in platform instrumentation, diagnostics, experimentation, and engineering productivity.
- Serve as a trusted technical advisor to strategic application partners building on the platform.
People Management & Culture
- Build and develop a high-performing engineering team with deep expertise in graphics, composition, experimentation, and evaluation systems.
- Coach engineers in system design, architecture, performance engineering, experiment design, and data-driven decision making.
- Foster a culture of technical excellence, accountability, inclusion, collaboration, and continuous learning.
- Promote blameless root-cause analysis, transparent regression management, and solid engineering fundamentals.
- Ensure expertise is scaled through playbooks, mentoring, and hands-on learning opportunities.
Cross-Functional Influence
- Partner closely with Product Management, Design, Data & Applied Science, and engineering leaders to align technical execution with product strategy.
- Drive alignment and negotiate priorities, dependencies, and timelines across partner organizations.
- Influence platform direction through data, technical insight, and solid stakeholder relationships.
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: 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:
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science AND relevant software engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership and people management responsibilities.
- OR equivalent practical experience.
- Solid proficiency in C++ and C#.
- Experience building large-scale software systems, developer platforms, frameworks, or runtime technologies.
- Experience with Windows application development and platform technologies.
- Experience leading technical teams and driving complex cross-functional initiatives.
- Proven ability to balance short-term execution with long-term technical investments.
- Experience with UI frameworks, graphics systems, rendering technologies, or composition architectures.
- Experience defining and implementing performance measurement, benchmarking, experimentation, or evaluation systems.
- Familiarity with modern application frameworks such as SwiftUI, React Native, Flutter, or equivalent UI technologies.
- Experience working across operating system, runtime, platform, and application boundaries.
- Track record of influencing strategy across multiple engineering organizations.
What You'll Influence
- Technical standards for platform runtime engineering.
- Platform architecture and design decisions.
- Performance and reliability investment priorities.
- Benchmarking, evaluation, and quality frameworks.
- Technical debt and modernization roadmaps.
- Cross-organization execution across WinUI, Windows App SDK, .NET, OS infrastructure, and strategic application partners.
#W+DJOBS
#WDJOBS
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 a related technical field, or equivalent experience
- 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages including C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, or equivalent experience
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements
- Pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and relevant software engineering experience with demonstrated technical leadership and people management responsibilities, or equivalent practical experience
- Solid proficiency in C++ and C#
- Experience building large-scale software systems, developer platforms, frameworks, or runtime technologies
- Experience with Windows application development and platform technologies
- Experience leading technical teams and driving complex cross-functional initiatives
- Ability to balance short-term execution with long-term technical investments
- Experience with UI frameworks, graphics systems, rendering technologies, or composition architectures
- Experience defining and implementing performance measurement, benchmarking, experimentation, or evaluation systems
- Familiarity with modern application frameworks such as SwiftUI, React Native, Flutter, or equivalent UI technologies
- Experience working across operating system, runtime, platform, and application boundaries
- Track record of influencing strategy across multiple engineering organizations
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.
