Senior Site Reliability Engineer - CTJ - Poly

Job ID: 200052006Posted: 2026-08-27Location: 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: Site Reliability EngineeringCompany: MicrosoftOverviewWant to work on the control plane for Azure itself? Our team owns Azure Resource Manager, the system every customer and service depends on to deploy, manage, and organize resources. We build large-scale, fault-tolerant distributed systems that define how Azure operates, from resource lifecycle and access control to global inventory and governance.Our team fosters a collaborative environment and builds upon each other’s ideas, to deliver world-class customer value at a rapid pace. We empower engineers to deliver creative solutions through bottoms-up innovation. This is a fun environment and a great opportunity to work on something highly strategic to Microsoft and extremely relevant in the industry. We’re looking for a Senior Site Reliability Engineer and a leader passionate about delivering value to customers in mission critical environments, who enjoys a growth hacking culture, and is eager to play a part in one of the most important long games for Microsoft.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 psychological safety where everyone can thrive at work.ResponsibilitiesActs 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 initiates actions to restore system/product/service for simple and complex problems when appropriate.Proactively seeks new knowledge and adapts to new trends, technical solutions, and patterns that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of service fabric services while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scaleDrives development of design documents for a product, application, service, or platform.Creates, implements, optimizes, debugs, refactors, and reuses code to establish and improve performance and maintainability, effectiveness, and return on investment (ROI).Leverages subject-matter expertise of product features and partners with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., project managers) to drive a workgroup's project plans, release plans, and work items.Take full ownership of assigned services, actively contributing to its enhancement across all cloud environments. Ensure the service maintains parity with the commercial cloud, delivering high support standards for customers. Participate in the service lifecycle, including design, development, deployment, and maintenance. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to uphold the highest standards of quality and performance. Engage in continuous improvement initiatives to enhance the service's capabilities and user experience.Identify opportunities for automation and optimization within the cloud to better support customers. This includes evaluating current processes and workflows to pinpoint inefficiencies and areas for enhancement. Design and implement automation solutions to streamline operations, reduce manual effort, and improve overall service delivery. Focus on optimizing existing systems and processes to boost performance and customer satisfaction.Embody our culture and values.QualificationsRequired Qualifications:Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 2+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 4+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration 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: The successful candidate must have an active U.S. Government Top Secret Clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) based on a Single Scope Background Investigation (SSBI) with Polygraph. 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 U.S. Government 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 ClearancePreferred Qualifications:Doctorate Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 3+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 6+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field AND 8+ years technical experience in software engineering, network engineering, or systems administration OR equivalent experience.3+ years technical experience working with large-scale cloud or distributed systems.Experience writing scripts and functional programming code to automate tasks, using languages such as Python, JavaScript, or Shell scripting.Experience developing end-to-end technical expertise in the architecture, code, features, and operations of specific products as required to implement improvements in product availability, security, quality, observability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and/or performance.Experience driving code/design reviews with the engineering teams that develop and/or manage those products and shares learnings and recommendations across engineering teams working on related products within their organization and other organizations as relevant. Knowledge of distributed systems.Highly effective written and oral communication skills.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.