Principal Software Engineer - Azure Kubernetes Service

Are you passionate about containerized applications and cloud-native software development? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you! At Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) traffic team, we build traffic management solutions for AKS customers. The product streamlines communication and enhances the reliability of micro-services in a cloud-native environment. Our mission is to make networking “just work” for Kubernetes developers—whether they’re deploying their first service or operating a complex, multi-tier application across regions.

As a Principal Software Engineer - Azure Kubernetes Service team member, you will be responsible for working with key stakeholders to design the architecture, implement key components, ship the product and support the customers. This opportunity will allow you to leads identification of dependencies and the development of design documents for a product, application, service, or platform. You will also, partners with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements for a set of scenarios.

This is a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of open source, cloud platform development, and AI. You’ll collaborate with various Azure product teams and the Kubernetes community to shape the future of Kubernetes networking—supporting huge amount of Azure customers, including those building the next generation of AI-powered applications.

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.  

• Partners with appropriate stakeholders to identify the direction and dependencies for products/features fulfilling a set of scenarios.
• Leads by example and mentors others to produce extensible and maintainable code used across products.
• Holds accountability as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI), mentoring engineers across products/solutions, working on-call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions.
• Increase development speed and efficiency across the AKS engineering team.
• Proactively seeks new knowledge and adapts to new trends, technical solutions, and patterns that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of products while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scale and shares knowledge with other engineers.

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, Go, C#, Rust, or C/C++
  • OR equivalent experience. 
• 4+ years of experience in building, shipping and operating reliable, distributed solutions.
• 2+ years of experience with Kubernetes development.
• 2+ years of experience engaging in site-reliability engineering practices and the ability to use AI tools for coding. 

Other Qualifications: 

• 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 related technical field AND 10+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, Go, C#, Rust, or C/C++
  • OR Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, Go, C#, Rust, or C/C++
  • OR equivalent experience. 
• 5+ years of experience designing and delivering advanced networking solutions (east/west and north/south) for large-scale, cloud-native environments.
• 3+ years of experience architecting and evolving the Kubernetes Layer 3 to Layer 7 (L3–L7) network stack, including at least one of: Container Network Interface (CNI) plugins, service mesh, edge traffic management, or related control/data plane components.
• 3+ years of experience with distributed systems design, scalability, and fault tolerance, including diagnosing and resolving complex issues in production environments; 1+ year of experience with Linux networking internals such as iptables/nftables, extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF), routing, tunneling, and network namespaces.

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $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: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft will accept applications and processes offers for these roles on an ongoing basis.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

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