Principal Software Engineer

Job ID: 200045415Posted: 2026-08-03Location: United States, Washington, RedmondSalary: USD $142,800 - $274,800 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 3 days / week in-officeRole type: Individual ContributorTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Software EngineeringDiscipline: Software EngineeringCompany: MicrosoftOverviewThe Conditional Access team builds the policy engine at the heart of Microsoft Entra and the Zero Trust security model. Every time a user or workload attempts to access a Microsoft or third-party resource, Conditional Access evaluates the full context of that request — user, device, location, application, real-time risk, and more — and makes the critical decision to grant, block, or challenge access. We are the enforcement point that turns "verify explicitly" from a principle into reality for hundreds of thousands of organizations and billions of authentications every day. Operating at extreme scale and with zero tolerance for downtime, our team owns the design, delivery, and live-site health of a mission-critical service that sits in the authentication hot path. We tackle hard problems across distributed systems, low-latency policy evaluation, security, and resilience — where correctness and availability directly protect our customers from real-world attacks. As identity increasingly becomes the security perimeter, and as we converge with Global Secure Access to protect network traffic as well as identity, our work is central to how Microsoft secures the modern enterprise. We're a team of engineers who care deeply about customer trust, operational excellence, and raising the bar for security across the industry. We move fast, own our outcomes end to end, and take pride in defending customers at a scale few teams in the world operate at.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.#MSFTSecurity #ConditionalAccessResponsibilitiesPrincipal Software Engineer — Responsibilities Technical leadership & architecture • Own the technical direction and architecture for one or more critical services, driving designs that are secure, scalable, and reliable at Microsoft scale. • Lead complex, cross-team system design efforts spanning identity, policy evaluation, and secure access enforcement; make and document high-impact architectural decisions and trade-offs. • Set and raise engineering standards for code quality, testing, performance, and operational excellence across the team. Delivery & execution • Break down ambiguous, large-scale problems into actionable technical roadmaps and drive them to delivery across multiple engineers and teams. • Personally deliver on the hardest, highest-risk parts of the work, and unblock others when execution stalls. • Drive engineering rigor in security, privacy, compliance, and Zero Trust principles throughout the development lifecycle. Reliability & operational excellence • Champion live-site health, security posture, and operational readiness; lead incident response and drive systemic fixes for the toughest issues. • Define SLAs/SLOs and instrument services for observability, resilience, and rapid recovery. Influence & cross-org impact • Partner with PM, partner engineering teams, and leadership to shape product and platform strategy beyond team boundaries. • Represent the team in cross-org technical forums, architecture reviews, and standards bodies; align stakeholders around a shared technical vision. • Drive alignment on shared platforms and reduce duplication across adjacent teams. People & culture • Mentor and grow senior and mid-level engineers, raising the technical bar and building the next generation of technical leaders. • Provide deep, constructive technical review (designs, code, incident postmortems) that elevates the whole team. • Model an inclusive, high-trust engineering culture and strong customer obsession.OtherEmbody our Culture and ValuesQualificationsRequired/minimum qualificationsBachelor'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 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: • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field AND 8+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR Master's Degree in Computer Science or a related technical field AND 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python • OR equivalent experience. • 4+ years of experience designing and delivering large-scale distributed systems, cloud services, or high-availability production services. • 3+ years of experience leading the technical direction and architecture of complex, cross-team engineering efforts. Preferred/Additional Qualifications • Master's or PhD in Computer Science or a related technical field AND 10+ years of technical engineering experience. • Deep experience in identity, authentication/authorization, security, or Zero Trust architectures (e.g., Microsoft Entra, Conditional Access, Global Secure Access, OAuth/OIDC, SAML). • Proven track record designing and operating mission-critical, low-latency services in the request hot path at internet scale (billions of transactions/day). • Strong background in distributed systems fundamentals — consistency, resilience, high availability, and graceful degradation. • Experience owning live-site health and operational excellence, including on-call leadership, incident response, and driving systemic reliability improvements. • Hands-on experience with a major public cloud (Azure preferred) and modern service technologies (containers, microservices, CI/CD). • Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction across teams and orgs, and to mentor and grow senior engineers. • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience representing engineering in cross-org architecture and strategy forums. Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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.