Principal Software Engineer - C++

About this role

Provide technical leadership for complex networking components across Windows Client and Windows Server (e.g., TCP/IP stack, DNS, DHCP, VPN, NDIS, filtering platforms, or distributed networking services). Drive architecture, design reviews, and invariant-based engineering to ensure security, reliability, and performance at global scale. Lead the design and implementation of high-impact features, security fixes, and platform hardening, including variant enumeration and regression prevention

Own end-to-end engineering quality—from design and code to validation, deployment, and long-term maintainability. Partner closely with security teams, Azure, and Redmond counterparts to align on roadmap, risk mitigation, and cross-platform dependencies. Diagnose and resolve complex customer issues and live-site incidents, balancing short-term mitigations with long-term fixes

Mentor senior engineers and raise the technical bar through code reviews, design discussions, and engineering best practices. Influence engineering processes, tooling, and testing strategies to improve efficiency, correctness, and confidence at scale. 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#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

OR equivalent experience. Strong expertise in networking fundamentals and protocols, such as TCP/IP, UDP, DNS, DHCP, routing, VPNs, or network security. Proven experience designing and debugging low-level, performance-critical, and concurrent systems

Demonstrated ability to lead technical design discussions and influence architecture across teams. Experience with security engineering, including threat modeling, invariants, and regression risk analysis. Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to reason about ambiguous, high-impact technical challenges

Prior ownership of customer-facing or platform-critical components used at large scale. Familiarity

Apply for this role on Microsoft’s official careers site.