Principal Software Engineering Manager

We are looking to expand our Team with a Principal Software Engineering Manager to lead a team that enables the success of Microsoft solutions for our Commercial & Enterprise customers.

In this role, you will be responsible for leading and growing a team of Software Engineers who solve complex, high‑impact technical problems across Windows client, Windows Update, and Windows Reliability. You will set technical direction, ensure operational excellence, and drive high‑quality customer outcomes while maintaining strong engineering fundamentals and customer trust.

As Principal Software Engineering Manager, you will balance people leadership, technical depth, and business impact. You will coach and develop engineers through regular 1:1s, career planning, and feedback; foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement; and lead your team through incident response, live‑site issues, and customer escalations. You will partner closely with Product Managers and Feature teams across Windows to influence product quality, reliability, and supportability at scale.

Our team leverages deep diagnostic expertise, telemetry, and real‑world customer signals to improve the functionality, performance, and reliability of Windows. Your team will work directly with the engineers who design and build Windows, using advanced diagnostic tools and rich data to drive durable fixes and systemic improvements.

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 live our values of respect, integrity, and accountability, and we are committed to building an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

This position will require you to work on occasion, a rotational on-call schedule during holidays, evenings, and weekends. 

This role will be responsible for leading teams that design, build, and operate scalable software solutions that improve the reliability, performance, and customer experience of Windows. As a Software Engineering Manager, you are accountable for people leadership, technical direction, and delivery outcomes across your team.

In this role, you are expected to:

1. Lead, coach, and develop a team of Software Engineers, providing clear expectations, regular feedback, career guidance, and growth opportunities through 1:1s, mentoring, and performance management.
2. Set technical direction and execution strategy for your team by partnering with Product Managers and cross‑functional stakeholders to translate customer needs and business priorities into clear engineering plans.
3. Drive operational excellence and delivery accountability, ensuring high‑quality execution through strong engineering fundamentals, effective planning, and disciplined incident response.
4. Leverage customer signals, telemetry, and product usage data to identify systemic issues, prioritize investments, and guide your team toward durable improvements in Windows reliability, performance, and supportability.
5. Ensure engineering quality and reliability by establishing best practices for design reviews, code reviews, testing, and continuous integration, and by holding the team accountable for secure, maintainable, and scalable solutions.
6. Provide technical leadership and escalation support, guiding engineers through complex debugging scenarios using diagnostic tools, performance profilers, and source code analysis, and representing your team in cross‑org technical discussions.
7. Foster a customer‑focused and inclusive team culture, where engineers understand customer impact, collaborate effectively across teams, and take ownership of outcomes that matter to enterprise and commercial customers.

Required Qualifications: 

• 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.

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