Principal Software Engineer - Architect

Job ID: 200039405Posted: 2026-08-12Location: United States, Washington, RedmondSalary: USD $165,600 - $296,400 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 3 days / week in-officeRole type: Individual ContributorTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Software EngineeringDiscipline: Software EngineeringCompany: MicrosoftOverviewSecurity represents the most critical priorities for our customers in a world awash in digital threats, regulatory scrutiny, and estate complexity. Microsoft Security aspires to make the world a safer place for all. We want to reshape security and empower every user, customer, and developer with a security cloud that protects them with end to end, simplified solutions. The Microsoft Security organization accelerates Microsoft’s mission and bold ambitions to ensure that our company and industry is securing digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds in our customers’ heterogeneous environments, as well as ensuring the security of our own internal estate. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world.We are hiring a Principal Software Engineer - Architect to join our mission of securing access to world’s online resources by building and operating an authorization platform with world class fundamentals that makes Microsoft customers the most secure and productive in the world. Microsoft Identity & Network Access (IDNA) is at the heart of the day-to-day technology experience and secures over a billion monthly active users. It powers the identity experience which is at the core of almost every Microsoft product and service from Windows to Office, from Azure to Xbox. Microsoft Identity is a booming business and we’re just getting started on our mission to secure and protect the world’s most valuable assets and most highly trafficked services.  We innovate on multiple technical aspects: 1. Architecting services for large scale and low latency requirements to handle millions of requests per minute completing under 10ms. 2. Security investments that span authorization frameworks such as role-based and attribute-based. 3. Experiences to understand access to resources in a way that is simple to comprehend and achieve least standing privileges. 4. Build a resilient platform that works for all services offered by Azure and Microsoft as well as extend to work where our customer enterprises run their applications beyond Azure. 5. Secure Azure across all the services to reduce the surface area by granular controls and having least standing privileges between systems. 6. Operating services in an efficient and hands-free manner. 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.ResponsibilitiesSet direction of Authorization at Microsoft and partner with the product management team and Microsoft services to bring alignment and enable smooth transition to the desired state. Design and develop features for large scale distributed software services and solutions  Communicate technical details clearly across organizational boundaries and customers. Adhere to modern software engineering practices through design and code reviews.  System design through well-defined interfaces across multiple components, code reviews, leveraging data/telemetry to make decisions. Develop “best-in-class” engineering for our services by ensuring that the services and the components are well-defined and modularized, secure, reliable, diagnosable, actively monitored and reusable.  Write clean and optimized code, improve test coverage for services, organize and implement integration tests, and resolve problem areas. Consider testability, portability/monitoring, reliability, and maintainability, and understand when code is ready to be shared and delivered. Gain a working understanding of Microsoft as a business and collaborate with mentors and leaders to contribute to cohesive, end-to-end experiences for our users. Focus on customer/partner needs through a data driven approach.QualificationsRequired Qualifications: 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, Rust, Go, 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 background and Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.Preferred Qualifications:Demonstrated ability to write clean, maintainable, and efficient code. Experience with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud: Understanding of cloud infrastructure and services. Strong problem-solving and analytical skills: Ability to diagnose issues, identify root causes, and implement effective solutions. Proven experience in building scalable and reliable software solutions. 5+ years architecting distributed systems.Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: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.