Software Engineer - CTJ - Top Secret

Overview

Are you interested in building and securing cloud‑scale software that protects some of the world’s most sensitive and mission‑critical environments? As a Software Engineer in Microsoft’s Specialized Cloud team, you’ll help design, deliver, and secure highly reliable services that underpin both internal security platforms and customer‑facing cloud offerings. Your work will directly contribute to protecting mission‑critical environments that demand the highest levels of trust, compliance, and operational excellence.

In this role, you’ll solve complex systems and security challenges in a fast-paced, agile setting. You’ll collaborate with experienced engineers to solve complex problems in software engineering, distributed systems, security engineering, and reliability, leveraging modern tools and engineering practices. This is an opportunity to grow your career in a position that demands rigorous engineering, robust operational excellence, and an obsession with security and reliability.

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

Responsibilities

• AI-Native Development: Uses appropriate artificial intelligence (AI) tools and practices across the software development lifecycle (SDLC) in a disciplined manner. Takes responsibility for the content of their AI-generated changes to artifacts, reviewing all changes and applying appropriate tooling and processes with minimal guidance.

• Coding: Supports efforts to use debugging, tests, tools, logs, telemetry, and other methods to proactively verify assumptions before issues occur for product features in production. Conducts incident retrospectives to identify root causes of problems, implements repair actions, and identifies mechanisms to prevent incident recurrence with minimal supervision. Under minimal guidance, applies least-access principles, and uses logging, telemetry, and other appropriate mechanisms to investigate issues while retaining privacy and security.

• Reviews product feature code and test code to ensure it meets team standards, contains the correct test coverage, and is appropriate for the product feature. Contributes to bringing insight to code reviews to help improve code quality, coaching and providing feedback to develop other engineers' skills with minimal guidance. Contributes to code reviews in a timely fashion that helps accelerate the pace of development on the team. Considers diagnosability, reliability, testability, and maintainability when reviewing code and understands when code is ready to be shared or delivered. Applies and reviews for coding patterns, security risks, compliance issues, and best practices in code reviews. Uses automated source code analysis tools that are incorporated into the build/development process with minimal supervision.

• Creates and implements code for a product, service, or feature, reusing code as applicable with minimal supervision. Writes and learns to create code that is extensible and maintainable. Considers diagnosability, reliability, and maintainability with few defects, and understands when the code is ready to be shared and delivered. Applies coding patterns and best practices to write code (e.g., leveraging state-of-the-art generative artificial intelligence [GenAI], approaches to source code organization, naming conventions). Escalates identified blockers or unknowns during the development process, communicates how they will impact timelines, and contributes to identifying strategies and/or opportunities to address them with minimal supervision.

• Design: Understands and provides feedback for proposals for architecture, with technical leadership from others. With minimal supervision, tests and explores various design options for a product/solution feature, outlining strengths and weaknesses of each option. Collaborates with architects with minimal supervision to build and modify a product/solution feature, providing feedback as needed. Begins to own or collaborate with other engineers on the architecture of solutions, following technical leadership as applicable. Contributes to the development of design documents that support user stories and other product requirements with oversight. Develops an awareness of the current technology landscape. Escalates and shares findings from investigations with the team and owns some design decisions. Helps to ensure system architecture and individual designs meet performance, scalability, resiliency, cost of goods sold (COGS), and other requirements and expectations. Upholds Microsoft standards of security, privacy, and other compliance requirements and expectations. Understands the importance of building solutions that expand upon the work of others. Contributes to the refinement of product features by escalating findings from analyses to inform decisions regarding the engineering of products.

• Creates a clear test strategy that ensures solution quality, prevents regression from being introduced into existing code with minimal supervision. Executes test plans that incorporate security testing to validate security invariants

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or related technical discipline with proven experience coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• 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:

• Candidates must have an active TS and be willing and eligible to upgrade to TS/SCI (with polygraph) or have an active TS/SCI and be willing and eligible to upgrade to TS/SCI (with polygraph). This role will require candidates to maintain the TS/SCI (with polygraph) clearance. 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 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 Clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field with proven experience coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• OR equivalent experience.

Software Engineering IC2 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $85,400 - $168,100 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 $111,100 - $183,700 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

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. (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html)