Software Engineer II

Overview

Microsofts Substrate is a massively scaled service that forms the backbone of M365 offerings. Our services empower businesses, educational institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide, representing more than a billion users.

We are on an ambitious journey to reimagine the way we understand, process, and store service data in the era of artificial intelligence. We are building Data Processing and Analytic services within Observability Intelligent Cloud group, Redmond, Washington location, empowering artificial intelligence, monitoring, alerting, analytics, automation, and other scenarios with low cost and full data governance across E2E data life cycle using AI and LLM.

We are seeking an innovative Software Engineer II with a passion for technology and AI-assisted engineering. In this role, you will work with senior engineers, principal engineers, and partner teams to implement, test, deploy, and maintain well-scoped components of large-scale data platform services. As a part of our team, your work will contribute to one of the worlds most significant platforms while helping you grow technical depth in AI-powered data processing and service engineering.

Who you are:

Technically Skilled: You have solid coding, testing, debugging, and problem-solving skills. You are comfortable learning service technologies, AI-assisted development tools, data systems, and production engineering practices.

Passionate: You have a passion for solving complex problems, big data, AI/LLM-enabled workflows, real-time event processing, and building software at massive scale.

Collaborative: You work effectively with senior engineers, principal engineers, peer developers, and partner teams, and you are open to feedback that improves design and implementation quality.

Innovative: You are driven to learn, create, and contribute to transformative AI-powered products while applying sound engineering judgment.

At Microsoft, we value diversity and ensure all voices are heard. A healthy work-life balance is essential to us, and were a team that works hard but also knows how to have fun. If youre excited by the opportunity to contribute to transformative technological advances and make an impact on a global scale, this could be the role for you!

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

• As a Software Engineer II on the Team, you will contribute to the successful development and evolution of our AI-powered data platform.
• You will work closely with senior engineers, principal engineers, and partner teams to deliver well-defined features and improve platform quality.
• Contribute to data platform infrastructure including frameworks, pipelines, service components, APIs, and automation using artificial intelligence.
• Build and improve scalable, high-performance software components over large datasets with low latency and high availability, under the guidance of senior technical owners.
• Contribute to AI and LLM-enabled platform experiences that help Microsoft teams understand production signals, analyze service data, improve engineering productivity, and make data-driven operational decisions.
• Develop reliable, maintainable, and well-tested software that supports data processing, analytics, workflow automation, and intelligent service operations across large-scale systems.
• Apply Microsofts strict data privacy, responsible AI, security, and compliance standards in day-to-day engineering work.
• Implement, test, deploy, and maintain well-scoped software components for data platform infrastructure, frameworks, pipelines, APIs, analytics, and automation scenarios.
• Work with senior engineers to build and improve service components that process large-scale service data, telemetry, metadata, configuration, and workflow outputs used by AI/ML and LLM-enabled platform experiences.
• Contribute to AI-powered engineering and operations capabilities, including data processing, signal analysis, intelligent summarization, workflow automation, service insights, and evidence generation for engineering teams.
• Collaborate with engineers from within or outside the team to integrate assigned components into larger OIC and Substrate systems, following established design patterns and engineering standards.
• Participate in design discussions for assigned feature areas by asking questions, evaluating implementation options, documenting assumptions, and incorporating feedback from senior technical owners.
• Take part in code reviews, both as a reviewer and a reviewee, to improve code quality, reliability, maintainability, and team engineering practices.
• Improve platform quality and live-site readiness by adding tests, monitoring, dashboards, diagnostics, documentation, and fixes for recurring operational issues.
• Develop technical depth in assigned features while learning AI-assisted engineering, data processing, service reliability, privacy, compliance, and responsible AI practices.
• Embody our Culture and Values

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors 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.

Other Requirements:

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:

• Masters Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• OR Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 5+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

• OR equivalent experience.

• Experience designing, building, testing, and operating cloud services, distributed systems, data pipelines, telemetry processing, or large-scale data systems.

• Experience with AI, machine learning, LLM-based workflows, data analytics, service intelligence, automation, time-series data, or production engineering systems.

• Experience applying quality engineering practices such as unit testing, integration testing, code reviews, observability, secure coding, and operational readiness.

• Problem-solving skills, with the ability to learn quickly, communicate clearly, and collaborate effectively across teams.

• Demonstrated ability to deliver well-scoped feature work and contribute to small to medium-sized projects.

Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 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

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.