Principal Software Engineering Manager
Microsoft · Posted Oct 7
Software, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and hardware services
Get a personal compatibility score
Add a resume for personal matches
About the role
The Windows + Devices Fundamentals team improves the reliability, performance, responsiveness, battery life, memory efficiency, and overall health of Windows devices. The team builds and operates services, telemetry systems, and data pipelines that transform signals from labs and the installed base into trustworthy metrics, actionable diagnostics, and measurable engineering improvements. This Principal Software Engineering Manager role will define strategy and lead an engineering organization responsible for critical Windows Fundamentals data and service capabilities, shaping architecture across backend services, telemetry platforms, data pipelines, metrics, and diagnostic workflows.
What you will do
- Define the organizational strategy, portfolio, and multi-year roadmap for Windows Fundamentals backend services, telemetry systems, data pipelines, metrics, cohort frameworks, and diagnostic capabilities.
- Guide architecture and execution across scalable systems for telemetry ingestion, transformation, orchestration, storage, health monitoring, analytics, diagnostics, and automated engineering workflows.
- Establish organization-wide standards for service reliability, security, compliance, privacy, observability, data quality, schema evolution, deployment safety, live-site response, and operational excellence.
- Lead the organization in using large-scale telemetry, statistical methods, experimentation, and systems debugging to identify systemic opportunities, understand product-health movements, and drive prioritized engineering action across Windows.
- Drive architectural simplification, automation, AI-assisted analysis, and self-service capabilities that detect issues earlier, reduce operational toil, and increase engineering leverage across multiple teams.
- Use data, customer insights, and business priorities to make portfolio tradeoffs, sequence investments, manage technical and operational risk, and hold teams accountable for measurable outcomes.
- Build a solid and inclusive engineering organization by hiring, coaching, and developing managers, principal engineers, and technical leaders; establish succession plans and a culture of technical excellence and operational accountability.
- Create alignment across Windows engineering, data science, security, silicon, OEM, and service organizations; resolve cross-team dependencies and influence architecture, product direction, and investment decisions with senior leaders.
Skills used in this role
What the employer is looking for
- Applicants must have at least 12+ years of software engineering experience and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical discipline. Equivalent practical experience is accepted in place of the degree.
- At least three years of people-management experience leading software engineers, including experience developing managers or senior technical leaders.
- Extensive experience leading the architecture, development, deployment, and operation of backend services, distributed systems, data pipelines, telemetry platforms, large-scale analytics, or engineering infrastructure.
- Demonstrated success building high-performing teams and leading complex, multi-team initiatives that delivered highly reliable production systems or platforms at scale.
- Deep technical judgment in service architecture, systems design, data engineering, security, reliability, debugging, and engineering tradeoffs.
- Ability to set organizational strategy, navigate ambiguity, make portfolio decisions using data, manage operational and delivery risk, and influence senior technical and product leaders across organizational boundaries.
- Experience leading organizations responsible for cloud services, distributed systems, data engineering, telemetry platforms, developer infrastructure, or business-critical production operations.
- Solid knowledge of Windows Fundamentals, Windows internals, reliability engineering, performance analysis, power efficiency, or system-level diagnostics.
- Experience leading secure and compliant services with solid observability, deployment controls, data-quality practices, live-site response, and operational accountability.
- Experience defining organizational metrics, cohorts, baselines, and measurement strategies using large-scale telemetry, experimentation, statistical analysis, or Azure data platforms.
- Track record of shaping architecture and product strategy, applying automation or AI to engineering workflows, developing senior leaders, and driving execution with executive and senior technical stakeholders.
- Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Benefits and support
- Compensation and benefits are detailed in the job posting
About Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a multinational technology company that develops, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products, services, and hardware devices. Best known for its Windows operating systems, Microsoft 365 productivity suite, and Xbox gaming consoles, the company has expanded heavily into enterprise cloud computing via Azure and advanced artificial intelligence solutions. As one of the world's most valuable public enterprises, it empowers individuals and businesses globally through innovative digital transformation.
- Industry
- Software
- Company size
- 228,000+ employees
- Founded
- April 4, 1975
- Location
- Redmond, Washington, USA
- Funding stage
- Public Company
Leadership
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Vice Chair and President
Recent coverage
Windows Central
Microsoft Announces Windows 11 Version 26H2 and Previews Next-Gen AI Features2026-10-04
Barchart
Wells Fargo Adds Microsoft to Q4 Tactical Ideas List With Street-High Target2026-10-06
The Official Microsoft Blog
Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn Leadership Update Issued by Satya Nadella2026-10-01