Microsoft Substrate is the foundational cloud platform that powers many of Microsoft’s most critical services including Exchange Online and M365 Copilot, providing shared infrastructure, identity, messaging, storage, and service-to-service capabilities used across Microsoft 365 and related cloud offerings. Substrate services operate at global scale and are designed to deliver high availability, reliability, and security for some of the world’s most demanding workloads.
As a Senior Site Reliability Engineer, you will lead reliability improvements across multiple services or components, solving complex, cross-cutting operational problems. You are recognized as a subject matter expert in your area and lead by example through strong technical judgment, ownership, and accountability.
You will influence service architecture, define reliability strategies, mentor other SREs, and drive meaningful reductions in incidents, toil, and operational risk—particularly for services operating in regulated, sovereign, or compliance-sensitive environments.
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
Responsibilities
Ensure 24x7 Service Reliability: Act as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) in an on-call rotation, leading incident response and resolution to maintain uptime and performance for Microsoft’s most critical services.
Support and Automate Deployments: Execute and improve manual operations and deployments for our products, while designing automation to scale and streamline those processes across environments.
Build Scalable Systems: Develop automation for monitoring, alerting, debugging, and deployment to reduce manual effort and accelerate safe, reliable delivery.
Drive Compliance and Security: Ensure systems meet Microsoft’s standards for security, privacy, and accessibility, especially when onboarding new technologies.
Lead Post-Incident Learning: Conduct postmortems, share insights, and implement solutions that prevent recurrence—fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
Collaborate Across Teams: Partner with engineering and product teams to align reliability goals with customer needs and deliver seamless user experiences.
Stay Ahead Technically: Continuously invest in your technical growth to improve system availability, observability, and performance at scale.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 2+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 4+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration
- OR equivalent experience.
Other Requirements:
- For access to GCCH and DoD environments, this role requires the ability to obtain and maintain a favorably adjudicated Tier 3 (T3) background investigation.
- For access to GCCM environments, this role requires the ability to meet Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) eligibility requirements.
- Doctorate Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 3+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration
- OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 6+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 8+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration
- OR equivalent experience.
- 3+ years technical experience working with large-scale cloud or distributed systems.
Site Reliability 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.
Skills Required
- Master's degree in Computer Science, IT, or related + 2+ years technical experience OR Bachelor's degree + 4+ years technical experience OR equivalent experience
- Ability to obtain and maintain a favorably adjudicated Tier 3 (T3) background investigation for GCCH and DoD environment access
- Meet Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) eligibility requirements for GCC Moderate (GCCM) environment access
- Pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter
- Experience acting as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) in on-call rotations and leading incident response
- 3+ years technical experience working with large-scale cloud or distributed systems
- Preferred: Doctorate in CS/IT + 3+ years OR Master's + 6+ years OR Bachelor's + 8+ years (or equivalent experience)
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
