The Azure Core Software Defined Networking (SDN) team designs, builds and operates foundational control plane and data plane agents, microservices, and distributed systems that form the core networking infrastructure layer of Azure Core, which is itself the foundational layer of Azure. Azure is the fastest-growing business in Microsoft’s history, and as one of the leading hyperscale cloud computing platform, hosts a rich variety of 200+ services, as well as other Microsoft businesses including Office 365, Xbox Live, OneDrive, Bing, Microsoft Teams and more. The team operates services that run in over hundred datacenters and edge networks worldwide, on millions of nodes, serving hundreds of thousands of customers.

　　The SDN team works a wide breadth of continuously evolving and cutting-edge computer networking topologies and hardware such as network adapters, Field-programmable gate array (FPGAs), System-on-Chip (SoCs), switches, optical and internet protocol (IP) networks that span subsea, terrestrial, satellite, metro-fiber, edge-sites, and hybrid on-premises connections to Azure over virtual private network (VPN). The team continuously researches, innovates and redesigns its hardware, software, and routing and peering topologies, to keep pushing the limits of scale, reliability and performance of Azure's Networking features while reducing the cost of goods sold (COGS) of operating it, eventually benefitting our customers to get more for less. For example, the team recently deployed in-house made networking appliances to drastically accelerate OpenAI large language model (LLM) workloads.

　　SDN enables customers to realize and control the network they desire for their workload in the cloud. This includes traditional enterprise network topology equivalents in the cloud like virtual networks and subnets, and functions like Access Control Lists (ACLs), firewalls, security groups, load balancers, Denial-of-Service (DoS) protection, application gateways, virtual appliances, and more that enable customers to easily realize both on-premises style as well as cloud-optimized network designs in the cloud. SDN delivers these features on a shared, very high speed but low-complexity physical network based on merchant silicon. And that is where the software comes in - all this can be realized and delivered in software by building a virtual network abstraction on top of the physical network, using host virtualization, smart network interface card (NICs), switches, and appliances allowing the underlying physical network to be cheap and extremely fast.

　　If you are a Senior Software Engineer, interested in hyperscale cloud technologies, eager and able to delve into and learn exciting new technologies, with the tenacity to solve hard technical problems, then this position is for you!  Come join our open, fun and diverse team, and learn about and build planet scale software on cutting edge hardware, influence their designs and architectural roadmaps, collaborate cross-domain with partner teams, and accelerate your career! We embrace inclusivity and diverse ideas – we use empathy, trust, and ownership to drive our team culture and deliver products in a fast-paced environment, tackling problems that don’t have a defined solution, but require creativity and teaming to deliver meaningful business outcomes. We continuously strive for world class engineering and operational excellence. 

　　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.

　　In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

　　This role does not provide relocation assistance.

　　Responsibilities

　　Technical leadership, coaching and mentoring a team of highly skilled Software Engineers.

　　Proactively seek new knowledge and adapt to new trends, technical solutions, and patterns that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of products while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scale.

　　Collaborate with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements for a scenario. Leverage subject-matter expertise of product features and partners with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., project managers) to drive a workgroup's project plans, release plans, and work items.

　　Guide discussions for the architecture of products/solutions and create proposals for architecture by testing design hypotheses and helping to refine code plans. Provide reactions, proposed solutions, and inputs to architects.

　　Produce extensible and maintainable code. Apply metrics to drive the quality and stability of code, as well as appropriate coding patterns and best practices. Participate in code reviews to ensure coding standards are followed.

　　Act as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) and guide other engineers by developing and following incidents playbooks, working on-call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions, alerting stakeholders about status and initiating actions to restore system/product/service as appropriate.

　　Embody our Culture (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/corporate-values) and Values (https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/culture) .

　　Qualifications

　　Required Qualifcations:

　　Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#.

　　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 Qualifcations:

　　Bachelor'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#.

　　OR Master'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.

　　4+ years experience designing, building, and successfully shipping large scale distributed software systems (distributed hash tables, directories, service fabric, Kubernetes, or distributed system quorum mechanisms).

　　4+ years experience working with operating system fundamentals (hypervisors, virtual machine switching, networking stacks, user mode and kernel mode interactions, threading, synchronization and debugging techniques).

　　4+ years working with computer networking systems and protocols (transmission control protocol (TCP)/IP, programmable networking, switches, routing, control plane and data planes and performance monitoring).

　　4+ years experience working with either distributed systems, low level packet processing code with Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK)/P4, OR high performance C , C++ code.

　　Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $112,000 - $218,400 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 $145,800 - $238,600 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 .

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　　Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 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) .