{"id":4217822,"url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-principal-software-engineer-substrate-spartans","title":"Principal Software Engineer- Substrate SPARTANs","company":{"id":18,"name":"Microsoft","domain":"microsoft.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/microsoft","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Eightfold","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":84,"open_postings":521,"ghost_share":0.01,"stale_share":0.568,"repost_share":0.05,"time_to_fill_p50_days":30,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Washington, United States","Mountain View, United States","New York, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":142800,"max":274800,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":274800},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":12,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C#","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-10T21:00:55Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-13","last_verified_at":"2026-11-13T03:22:27Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"OverviewWe are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join the Special Projects and Resources Team (SPARTANs) in M365 Core - Substrate . SPARTANs tackle strategic projects and hard problems across M365 Core that remove agility and modernization barriers for engineers across Substrate.\nSubstrate is the data and intelligence platform that underpins Microsoft 365, enabling partner teams to build, run, and modernize compliant, reliable services on a global scale. SPARTANs exist so the organization can move faster and make greater impact: we stand up outcome-oriented missions that unblock critical programs in modernization, resilience, cost optimization, compliance, and developer productivity. We are an organization dedicated to serving others, always striving to make a positive impact across teams and the broader community.\nMicrosoft’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.\nResponsibilities\nNavigate ambiguity. Take on problems where the requirements, ownership, and sometimes the root cause are all unsettled. You build a working model of an unfamiliar codebase quickly, form a defensible hypothesis, and convert open-ended asks into scoped projects with clear success criteria.\nDrive results end to end. Own the technical outcome of high-visibility projects from problem framing through deployment and measured impact. You set the bar for clean, testable, observable code, and you leave reusable patterns, documentation, and playbooks behind, so the gain does not decay after we move on.\nOperate across boundaries. Build the coalitions the work depends on. You align partner teams who do not report to you, negotiate dependencies and sequencing, and land changes across repositories and service boundaries you do not own. You represent the technical position credibly to executives and to the engineers who will live with the design.\nExercise strong judgement. Decide what to build, what to defer, and what to stop. You weigh reliability, cost, compliance, and time-to-impact under incomplete information, make the call, state the tradeoff explicitly, and revisit it when the evidence changes.\nRaise the reliability and performance bar. Diagnose and fix latency, scale, and cost problems in always-on distributed services; improve resilience, observability, and incident readiness; and serve as a Designated Responsible Individual across products where the engagement calls for it.\nGrow the engineering community. Mentor senior and principal engineers, review designs across the organization, and develop in others the techniques you use to ramp fast and reason well. You model a growth mindset that treats mistakes as a source of more reliable engineering.\nWhat you will bring\nA track record of technical leadership on complex distributed systems, delivered through influence rather than authority.\n\nDepth in design and coding in C#, Java, C++, Rust, or a comparable language, with a tested approach for gaining expertise and confidence in unfamiliar codebases.\n\nStrong distributed systems fundamentals: high-scale, low-latency, always-on services that are inexpensive to operate.\n\nDemonstrated performance engineering experience, including diagnosing and fixing performance and cost problems in production.\n\nExcellent cross-group influence and crisp written and verbal communication, including the ability to tell the story of impact to executive audiences with evidence.\n\nAn inclusive, collaborative style. You listen well, you speak openly, and it matters to you that everyone on the team feels like they belong.\n\nQualifications\nRequired Qualifications:\nBachelor'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#, Java, JavaScript, or PythonOR equivalent experience.\n\nOther Requirements:\nAbility 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:\nMicrosoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.\nPreferred Qualifications:\nMaster's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or PythonOR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python\nOR equivalent experience.\n\nExperience with modernization at scale (framework, language, or platform migrations), developer productivity, or compliance-constrained engineering.\nSolid coding, design, and problem-solving skills, with proven ownership of architecture for a significant service or platform component.\nExperience building reliable and resilient services and ramping quickly on new technologies.\nSoftware Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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.\nCertain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:\nhttps://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay\nThis position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.\nMicrosoft 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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6784,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":12,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Cloud Platforms (IaaS & PaaS)","Office & Productivity Software","Gaming Consoles","Developer Tools"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-13T03:22:27Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 6,957 · green card filings: 2,767","filings_12m":6957,"filings_prev_12m":10319,"green_card_filings_12m":2767,"median_offered_wage_usd":167541,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-12T07:36:15+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":5005}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":2,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-13T04:17:40Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":274800,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-principal-software-engineer-substrate-spartans","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-principal-software-engineer-substrate-spartans.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-13T04:17:40Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":9092,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-14T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":18},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=18"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-principal-software-engineer-substrate-spartans"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-principal-software-engineer-substrate-spartans"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-principal-software-engineer-substrate-spartans"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/microsoft-principal-software-engineer-substrate-spartans\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-principal-software-engineer-substrate-spartans"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4217822}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"microsoft.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4217822},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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