Principal Software Engineer

Quick Facts

• Role: Principal Software Engineer (AKS)

• Focus: AKS Resource Provider and Kubernetes control plane services

• Mission: Secure, reliable, scalable cloud-native infrastructure on Azure

Description

Build and operate critical AKS platform services in the Resource Provider and control plane for Linux and Windows workloads across cloud and edge environments. Lead design and implementation of highly available, secure, and scalable capabilities for cluster lifecycle management, upgrades, networking, security, and fleet-scale operations. Drive reliability improvements through observability, performance analysis, capacity planning, resiliency testing, and incident prevention.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of highly available, secure, and scalable services in the AKS Resource Provider and control plane.

• Drive technical solutions for cluster lifecycle management, upgrades, node pools, networking, security, and fleet-scale service operations.

• Improve platform reliability with observability, performance analysis, capacity planning, resiliency testing, and incident prevention.

• Investigate complex production issues and drive long-term engineering improvements that reduce operational risk and customer impact.

• Partner across AKS and Azure teams (Azure Core, Compute, Networking, Security) to deliver integrated platform capabilities.

• Contribute to technical strategy and architectural decisions for key AKS platform investments.

• Improve engineering productivity with tooling, automation, testing infrastructure, and operational excellence practices.

• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and incident investigations.

• Use AI-assisted engineering tools to improve velocity, diagnostics, testing, and operational workflows.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in C++, C#, Java, Go, or Python (or equivalent experience).

• Ability to meet security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years.

Benefits

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation (details provided via Microsoft careers pay information page).