Senior Software Engineer - CTJ - TS/SCI

Job ID: 200059506Posted: 2026-10-02Location: United States, Virginia, RestonSalary: USD $119,800 - $234,700 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 3 days / week in-officeRole type: Individual ContributorTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Software EngineeringDiscipline: Software EngineeringCompany: MicrosoftOverviewMicrosoft has an exciting opportunity for a Software Engineer on the Cloud+AI Silver Team. This team will be responsible for deploying and operating services within an air gapped environment, including the infrastructure for collaboration. In this role, you will have the opportunity to work with engineers and program managers who enable a broad set of Azure services to be consumed by internal and external customers in highly secured and regulated industries. The systems and software you build and support will be required to meet the security policy and assurance requirements of both public and private sector customers. 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.ResponsibilitiesThe scale of our operations is enormous. Microsoft's products and services are overwhelmingly consumed online, and billions of people use them every day. We need people who enjoy analyzing complicated problems, coming up with creative solutions, working in focused teams to build things no-one has thought of before, all in the service of production reliability.    Applies debugging tools and examines logs, telemetry, and other methods to verify assumptions through writing and developing code proactively before issues occur and reactively as issues occur for products. Conducts retrospective debugging of solutions to identify root causes of problems. Maintains operations of live service as issues arise on a rotational, on-call basis. Implements solutions and mitigations to more complex issues impacting performance or functionality of Live Site service and escalates as necessary. Reviews and writes issues postmortem and shares insights with the team. Acts as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) and guides other engineers by developing and following the playbook, working on call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions. Alerts stakeholders as to status and initiates actions to restore system/product/service for simple problems and complex problems when appropriate. Responds within Service Level Agreement (SLA) timeframe. Drives efforts to reduce incident volume, looking globally at incidences and providing broad resolutions. Escalates issues to appropriate owners. Drives efforts to integrate instrumentation for gathering telemetry data on system behavior such as performance, reliability, availability, usage, and safety mechanisms. Drives sustaining feedback loops from telemetry resulting in subsequent designs. Creates outputs of telemetry such as notifications or dashboards. Drives efforts to collect, classify, and analyze data on a range of metrics (e.g., health of the system, where bugs might be occurring). Drives the refinement of products through data analytics and makes informed decisions in engineering products through data integration. Builds, enhances, reuses, contributes to, and identifies new software developer tools to support other programs and applications to create, debug, and maintain code for products. Uses open source when possible. Begins to develop skills in other tools outside areas of expertise. Identifies internal tools and creates tools that will be useful for creating the product, determining if methods are still applicable for the current solution. Shares best practices and teaches others about new tools and strategies. Defines and develops standardized, repeatable, scalable solutions to guarantee quality.Embody our culture and values.QualificationsRequired 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. Other Requirements: 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/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 thereafter.Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of U.S. citizenship due to citizenship-based legal restrictions. Specifically, this position supports United States federal, state, and/or local United States government agency customer and is subject to certain citizenship-based restrictions where required or permitted by applicable law. To meet this legal requirement, citizenship will be verified via a valid passport, or other approved documents, or verified US government Clearance.Preferred Qualifications:4+ years of experience with PowerShell, C#, or C++.Experience working on large-scale distributed services with on-call responsibilities.Ability to build and influence broadly towards common goals and priorities. Ownership for end-to-end project lifecycle with solid project management and communication skills.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: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.