We engineer the systems that keep Microsoft 365 running—always. As part of the High Availability (HA) team, you'll build and operate mission-critical infrastructure that protects customer data and ensures service resilience across global data centers. Our work spans three evolving areas: large-scale distributed storage and high-availability systems; AI agents and agentic engineering that automate operations and software development; and applied AI, machine learning, and data science that enable intelligent prediction, decision-making, and optimization.
As a Senior Software Engineer, you will design and implement innovative solutions across these areas, tackling complex challenges in distributed systems while applying emerging AI technologies to transform how cloud infrastructure is built and operated. You will work on projects ranging from replication and recovery systems and next-generation storage architectures to autonomous incident mitigation, AI-powered engineering workflows, and predictive models for system reliability. The focus of your work will evolve with our technical priorities, offering opportunities to deepen your expertise and drive meaningful innovation across multiple domains.
We are looking for engineers with strong software engineering fundamentals, practical experience with modern AI technologies, and a passion for continuous learning. This opportunity will allow you to solve challenging problems at global scale, explore emerging technologies, and shape the next generation of intelligent and resilient cloud infrastructure.
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
Design, develop, and operate large-scale distributed storage and high-availability systems, including data replication, database copy management, failover, recovery, and evolving storage architectures, to improve reliability, scalability, performance, and efficiency.
Build and apply AI agents and agentic workflows to automate incident investigation, mitigation, root-cause analysis, software development, testing, debugging, and other operational and engineering processes.
Apply AI, machine learning, and data science techniques to analyze large-scale operational data, develop predictive and decision models, identify system risks, and optimize reliability and resource efficiency.
Independently drive complex engineering projects from technical design and implementation through testing, deployment, production operations, and continuous improvement.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams across storage, infrastructure, and AI engineering to solve challenging technical problems and advance system architecture and engineering practices.
Continuously explore, evaluate, and apply emerging technologies and engineering approaches to deliver innovative, practical solutions.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- OR equivalent experience.
- Master'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 Bachelor'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 equivalent experience.
- Experience designing, developing, and operating large-scale distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, or backend services.
- Solid understanding of software engineering fundamentals, system architecture, concurrency, reliability, and fault tolerance.
- Hands-on experience using AI and developing or integrating AI agents and agentic workflows to solve practical engineering problems.
- Foundational understanding of machine learning, statistical analysis, or data-driven modeling, with the ability to evaluate and apply these approaches to engineering problems.
- Demonstrated ability to independently solve complex technical problems, deliver high-quality production software, and continuously learn and adopt emerging technologies.
- Experience with distributed storage systems, databases, replication protocols, consistency models, or advanced storage technologies such as erasure coding and Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR).
- Experience building production AI agent systems, including tool integration, Model Context Protocol (MCP), orchestration, evaluation, safety guardrails, and autonomous task execution.
- Hands-on experience with applied machine learning, data science, predictive modeling, anomaly detection, or decision optimization, particularly using large-scale operational telemetry.
- Experience applying agentic engineering to automate software development, testing, troubleshooting, or incident management workflows.
- Experience designing, troubleshooting, and optimizing highly available services in large-scale cloud production environments.
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 and 4+ years of technical engineering experience with coding, or equivalent experience.
- Coding experience in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, or comparable languages.
- Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience, or bachelor's degree and 8+ years of experience, or equivalent experience.
- Experience designing, developing, and operating large-scale distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, or backend services.
- Understanding of software engineering fundamentals, system architecture, concurrency, reliability, and fault tolerance.
- Hands-on experience using AI and developing or integrating AI agents and agentic workflows for engineering problems.
- Foundational understanding of machine learning, statistical analysis, or data-driven modeling.
- Ability to independently solve complex technical problems, deliver production software, and adopt emerging technologies.
- Experience with distributed storage systems, databases, replication protocols, consistency models, erasure coding, or Shingled Magnetic Recording.
- Experience building production AI agent systems with tool integration, Model Context Protocol, orchestration, evaluation, safety guardrails, and autonomous task execution.
- Experience with applied machine learning, data science, predictive modeling, anomaly detection, or decision optimization using large-scale operational telemetry.
- Experience applying agentic engineering to software development, testing, troubleshooting, or incident management workflows.
- Experience designing, troubleshooting, and optimizing highly available services in large-scale cloud production environments.
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.
