Principal Cloud Network Engineer

Microsoft is building AI infrastructure at an unprecedented pace and every new GPU cluster puts more demand on our wide area network. To scale the network 10x were hiring a Principal Cloud Network Engineer to provide expert technical leadership at the intersection of large-scale networking network validation live-site operations software engineering and AI. Youll shape the strategy and architecture for how network operating systems features configurations and operational workflows are tested deployed monitored and continuously improved across a global multi-vendor environment

The successful candidate will own complex problem and solution spaces that span teams and engineering disciplines. They will define technical direction establish durable engineering standards lead high-consequence design decisions and convert recurring operational pain into secure measurable and scalable systems. A central expectation is to accelerate the teams AI engineering maturity by building practical AI-assisted and agentic capabilities along with the evaluation safety observability and human-oversight mechanisms required for production use.

Microsofts 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. We build on our values of respect integrity and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

• Define and lead end-to-end network validation strategies across network operating systems routing features hardware platforms configurations and automation services covering unit integration virtual lab physical lab canary and production environments.
• Architect extensible vendor-agnostic testing frameworks to validate control-plane convergence data-plane behavior failure recovery scalability performance interoperability upgrade and downgrade safety and platform stability across multi-vendor networks.
• Establish risk-based quality standards and release-readiness criteria including test coverage quality gates regression requirements reproducible lab environments and reusable tests and safeguards derived from production incidents and defects.
• Provide technical leadership for complex network failures and live-site incidents using telemetry packet captures logs protocol state topology and hardware signals to isolate issues identify systemic failure patterns and drive corrective actions.
• Define and improve network operational readiness and reliability including telemetry alerting service-level indicators troubleshooting rollback post-deployment validation capacity analysis self-healing mechanisms and secure escalation processes.
• Architect and build network automation and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) systems including source of truth intent and metadata as code automated validation progressive deployment health gates rollback drift detection reconciliation and operational automation.
• Provide technical leadership across teams driving high-impact architectural decisions aligning engineering operations security and vendor stakeholders mentoring engineers and establishing standards for code quality observability testing documentation configuration management and service ownership.
• Define and execute an artificial intelligence (AI) strategy for network engineering applying AI capabilities to improve engineering efficiency network operations troubleshooting automation reliability and measurable operational outcomes.

Required Qualifications:

• Doctorate Degree in Electrical Engineering Optical Engineering Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 3 years technical experience in network design development and automation
  • OR Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering Optical Engineering Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 4 years technical experience in network design development and automation
  • OR Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering Optical Engineering Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 6 years technical experience in network design development and automation
  • 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:

• Doctorate Degree in Electrical Engineering Optical Engineering Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 5 years technical experience in network design development and automation
  • OR Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering Optical Engineering Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 8 years technical experience in network design development and automation
  • OR Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering Optical Engineering Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 12 years technical experience in network design development and automation
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 3 years experience delivering network designs into production and experience with live site accountability for a network.
• 1 year(s) experience developing quality management programs.

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Cloud Network Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142800 - $274800 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 $188000 - $304200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
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.

Required Experience:

IC