Imagine working at the forefront of the cloud industry, helping shape the infrastructure behind some of the world’s most demanding cloud-native workloads. The AKS Infrastructure team builds the automation and control systems behind Azure Kubernetes Service, one of Microsoft’s most popular and strategic cloud services.
As a Software Engineer on the AKS Platform Infrastructure team, you will solve deeply technical distributed-systems problems across self-healing, autoscaling, observability, capacity management, performance optimization, component deployment, security, and reliable production operations. You will build platform engineering solutions that eliminate manual toil and help AKS support mission-critical workloads, emerging AI scenarios, and the next generation of cloud-native infrastructure.
This is a unique opportunity to accelerate your career, develop deep cloud infrastructure expertise, and shape the future of hyperscale managed Kubernetes.
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
- Build and maintain the tools and systems that manage hundreds of thousands of virtual machines powering Azure Kubernetes Service.
- Improve the performance, availability, and efficiency of Kubernetes clusters across a large-scale global fleet.
- Design automation for cluster lifecycle operations, including deployment, upgrades, repair, validation, and safe rollout of infrastructure components.
- Develop tools, services, and safety mechanisms that prevent infrastructure issues from becoming customer-impacting incidents.
- Partner across AKS and Azure teams to deliver secure, compliant, and resilient infrastructure changes.
- Participate in production operations and on-call rotations, using operational learnings to drive durable engineering improvements.
- Contribute to an engineering culture through technical design, code reviews, mentoring, and continuous improvement.
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, Go, Bash, Rust, 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:
- 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, Go, Bash, Rust, 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, Go, Bash, Rust, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- OR equivalent experience
- Experience with Linux or similar Unix-like server environments
- OR equivalent experience
- Experience with Containers, Kubernetes, or other cloud-native technologies
- OR equivalent experience
- Experience with cloud computing and infrastructure management concepts
- OR equivalent experience
- Experience with observability databases and platforms such as OTel, Prometheus, Datadog, Elastic or equivalent
- Experience with Cloud-based telemetry data stores such as Azure Data Explorer/Kusto, Clickhouse or equivalent
Software 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
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 4+ years of technical engineering experience coding in languages including Go, Bash, Rust, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python; equivalent experience accepted.
- Ability to pass Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including the Microsoft Cloud Background Check.
- Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience coding in the listed languages; equivalent experience accepted.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience coding in the listed languages; equivalent experience accepted.
- Experience with Linux or similar Unix-like server environments.
- Experience with containers, Kubernetes, or other cloud-native technologies.
- Experience with cloud computing and infrastructure management concepts.
- Experience with observability databases and platforms such as OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Datadog, or Elastic.
- Experience with cloud-based telemetry data stores such as Azure Data Explorer/Kusto or ClickHouse.
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.









