Site Reliability Engineer II - CTJ - Top Secret

Job ID: 200037583Posted: 2026-06-02Location: United States, Washington, RedmondSalary: USD $102,100 - $202,200 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 3 days / week in-officeRole type: Individual ContributorTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Software EngineeringDiscipline: Site Reliability EngineeringCompany: MicrosoftOverviewAre you interested in working on cutting-edge cloud security products? Would you like to be part of one of the world’s most advanced cyber-security solutions and protect millions of computers from thousands of active attack attempts, every month? Look no further than the Microsoft Defender engineering team. We are looking for a Site Reliability Engineer II who will be building and delivering cloud solutions to meet the scale that few companies in the industry are required to support. Leveraging state-of-the-art technologies, you will be instrumental in delivering holistic protection within highly sensitive and secure government environments. The Microsoft Defender team is responsible for delivering a constantly evolving set of services and solutions to meet the challenging landscape of our ever-evolving attackers. This is a team which provides on-call operational support and improvements to the operational posture of the Microsoft Defender products within US Government clouds. You will operate our production services, and work closely with other engineering teams to ensure services and systems are highly stable, meet performance SLAs, and meet the expectations of internal and external customers and users. The Microsoft Defender team is responsible for delivering a constantly evolving set of services and solutions to meet the challenging landscape of our ever-evolving attackers. 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. ResponsibilitiesLive Site Operations: Serve as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) in a 24x7 on-call rotation, monitoring service health and responding to incidents within SLA timelines. Automation & Deployment: Contribute to automation efforts and validate code functionality in non-production environments to ensure smooth deployments. Compliance & Security: Support compliance processes by verifying security, privacy, and accessibility standards during onboarding of new technologies. Continuous Learning: Stay current with industry trends and internal tools to improve reliability, performance, and observability at scale. Engineering Best Practices: Apply proven development and scaling practices to meet performance and customer requirements. Cross-Team Collaboration: Communicate effectively with engineering partners to align on goals and deliver user-centric solutions. Incident Response & Postmortems: Address complex live site issues, implement mitigations, and document learnings through postmortems.Other:Embody our company's Culture and ValuesQualificationsRequired Qualifications:Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 1+ year(s) technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administrationOR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 2+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administrationOR equivalent experience. Other Qualifications:Security Clearance Requirements: Candidates must be able 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:Candidates must have an active TS and be willing and eligible to upgrade to TS/SCI (with polygraph) or have an active TS/SCI and be willing and eligible to upgrade to TS/SCI (with polygraph). This role will require candidates to maintain the TS/SCI (with polygraph) clearance. Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required pre-offer and post-hire for this role. Failure to maintain or obtain the appropriate clearance and/or customer screening requirements may result in employment action up to and including termination.Clearance Verification: This position requires successful verification of the stated security clearance to meet federal government customer requirements. You will be asked to provide clearance verification information prior to an offer of employment.Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafterPreferred Qualifications:Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 3+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administrationOR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 5+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administrationOR equivalent experience. 2+ years technical experience working with large-scale cloud or distributed systems.Demonstrated experience applying software engineering principles to production systems, including designing, building, or improving services and platforms. Proficiency in one or more programming languages such as C#, Go, Java, or Python, with the ability to develop and maintain production-quality code.Experience with automation that results in measurable improvements (e.g., reduced toil, fewer manual steps, improved system reliability).Experience with debugging and troubleshooting complex distributed systems in production environments.Ability to independently identify problems and implement solutions that improve system reliability and operational efficiency.Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, testing, deployment, and reliability tooling.Site Reliability Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: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: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.