Principal Software Engineer

Come help build the next evolution in Xbox Game Compatibility. Join the Xbox Platform team and leverage your system engineering experience to advance the future of Game Preservation. Your work will help identify and outline the specific requirements and technical boundaries for preserving game content, build scalable emulation solutions, and ensure a fun gameplay experience for all players. Our technology solutions are a critical part of enabling the Xbox goal of allowing players to continue to enjoy their games across devices. 

As Principal Software Engineer on our team, you will have the opportunity to shape the future of game preservation. You will own the design, development, and maintenance of tools to enable emulation. You will investigate graphics correctness and performance issues and build general solutions. Often, this will require working with limited access to debugging symbols and source code. You will leverage your technical and social skills to collaborate with team members and partners across Xbox, Microsoft, and 3rd party developers. 

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. 

Required/Minimum Qualifications (RQs/MQs)

• 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, C, C++, C# 
  • OR equivalent experience 
• 2+ years experience debugging performance-critical software
• 3+ years experience communicating and working across multiple teams
• Experience with Xbox graphics 

Preferred Skills 

• Deep understanding of the graphics stack—from game API usage (e.g., DirectX, Vulkan, OpenGL) to low-level GPU hardware 
• Experience building tools and pipelines to support development workflows 
• Ability to debug low level technical issues 
• Ability to diagnose problems and propose effective solutions 

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 for the role until July 14, 2025.

• Understand all layers of the graphics stack: from game API usage to low-level hardware 
• Investigate and solve game compatibility challenges 
• Build tooling to support compatibility investigations 
• Use your social skills to collaborate with team members and partners