Principal Software Engineer - DPU Integrations (Santa Clara)

Job ID: 200038538Posted: 2026-07-07Location: United States, California, Santa ClaraSalary: 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: MicrosoftOverviewMicrosoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team behind Microsoft’s expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” mission. SCHIE delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Teams, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform globally with our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for passionate, high-energy engineers to help achieve that mission. The DPU team, within the Azure Hardware Systems & Infrastructure group, brings together state-of-the-art software and hardware expertise to create a highly programmable and high-performance chip with the capability to efficiently handle large data volumes. Thanks to its integrated design, this solution empowers teams to operate with increased agility and deliver significantly superior performance compared to CPU-based alternatives.  As a Principal Software Engineer in the DPU Integrations and Operational Excellence team, you will be involved in designing, building, testing and deploying the automation tools and agents needed for control and data plane software that runs on DPU’s custom-built silicon in a variety of new platforms targeted at Azure compute and networking use-cases. This would entail building a deep understanding of the DPU architecture and the systems built using the DPU, understanding the end-to-end customer workflows, and building debugging skills required to troubleshoot field issues. You will be responsible for managing the field incidents, maintaining dashboards for active/dormant cases, tracking software/firmware releases, and the fixes being carried in each, and collaborating cross-functionally in the pursuit of case resolution. This is an opportunity to build, test, and support innovative products that will be deployed on a planet scale.  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.  ResponsibilitiesDesign, build, test and deploy innovative integration and diagnostics tools, and AI agents to release quality products and reduce time to mitigate production issues. Provides technical leadership to teams to identify the scope of testing to create a quality plan for DPU based compute products. In partnership with key stakeholders creates and manages project schedules. Leads the team by providing technical expertise and oversight, monitors test plan execution and quality to ensure that testing is efficient and executed according to plans. 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, Alerting stakeholders about status and initiating actions to restore system/product/service for simple and complex problems when appropriate. Guide and help debug field issues. Collaborate cross-functionally and drive debug sessions to arrive at root cause. Maintain dashboards of live/dormant cases and KPIs. Feedback learnings from field issues back into the engineering dev/test process. Embody our culture and values. QualificationsRequired 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 QualificationsAbility 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 Qualifications10+ Years of previous experience in developing, testing, diagnosing and troubleshooting networking, storage or compute cloud platforms as a lead engineer owning releases and mentoring/guiding a team of engineers. Experience with Azure or similar large scale cloud computing infrastructure, control plane, telemetry, monitoring, diagnostics, reporting Experience developing and/or testing embedded software for NICs and/or DPUs/IPUs.  Understanding and hands on experience with networking (TCP/IP, RoceV2, routing/switching), Software Defined Networking, and server platform firmware (BMC, BIOS etc) testing. Experience with complex debug/troubleshooting in both lab and live site situations. Experience with dealing with large-scale data analysis to identify themes and root causes of issues Experience with AI agents to do live site tool automation and analysis 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.