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Principal Site Reliability Engineer CTJ Secret

Microsoft

Job Location:

Redmond, WA - USA

Yearly Salary: USD 142800 - 274800

Posted: 6 October 2026 (3 days ago)

Application Deadline: 3 January 2027

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Overview

Microsoft Substrate is the foundational cloud platform that powers many of Microsofts most critical services including Exchange Online and M365 Copilot providing shared infrastructure identity messaging storage and service-to-service capabilities used across Microsoft 365 and related cloud offerings. Substrate services operate at global scale and are designed to deliver high availability reliability and security for some of the worlds most demanding workloads.

As a Principal Site Reliability Engineer you will set technical and operational direction for reliability across Substrate workloads. You operate at broad scope influencing architecture reliability strategy and engineering practices across teams and organizations.

You are expected to lead complex multi-year initiatives; shape how reliability is designed into systems; and act as a role model for technical excellence leadership and Microsoft valuesparticularly for services operating in regulated sovereign or compliance-sensitive environments.

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. 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.

Responsibilities

Define and drive reliability strategy SLO frameworks and operational best practices across Substrate workloads in highly regulated environments
Serve as an actively engaged senior on-call engineer (OCE) participating in on-call rotations and leading incident response for Substrate services in regulated environments.
Provide hands-on leadership during the most complex or high-impact incidents setting technical direction and response strategy.
Drive high-quality post-incident reviews that result in durable systemic engineering improvements across teams.
Architect and deliver large-scale automation observability and self-healing solutions.
Drive architectural decisions and define software engineering standards that make reliability security and compliance intrinsic to Substrate services.
Influence service design and engineering decisions across organizational boundaries.
Mentor senior and principal engineers and shape the long-term technical direction of the SRE discipline.
Represent Substrate SRE perspectives with senior leadership and cross-functional partners.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

Doctorate Degree in Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 2 years technical experience in software engineering network engineering or systems administration
- OR Masters Degree in Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 3 years technical experience in software engineering network engineering or systems administration
- OR Bachelors Degree in Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 5 years technical experience in software engineering network engineering or systems administration
- OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements:

Security Clearance Requirements

Candidates must be able to meetMicrosoft customer and/or government security screening requirementsrequired for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

This role requires access toMicrosoft Government cloud environments includingGCC Moderate (GCCM) GCC High (GCCH) and Department of Defense (DoD)environments. As a result the successful candidate must be able toobtain and maintainthe appropriate background investigations and customer screenings required for access to these environments.

For access toGCCH and DoD environments this role requires the ability to obtain and maintain afavorably adjudicated Tier 3 (T3) background investigation.
For access toGCCM environments this role requires the ability to meetCriminal Justice Information Services (CJIS)eligibility requirements.

Formanager-level roles aTier 5 (T5) background investigation is preferred as certain approval authorities and operational responsibilities require this level of screening.

Candidatesmay be considered without currently holding these background investigations provided they areeligible for and able to successfully obtain them. Candidates may begin work while required background investigations are in progress; howeverfailure to obtain or maintain the appropriate clearance and/or customer screening requirements may result in employment action up to and including termination.

In addition this position will be required topass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications:

Doctorate Degree in Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 5 years technical experience in software engineering network engineering or systems administration
- OR Masters Degree in Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 8 years technical experience in software engineering network engineering or systems administration
- OR Bachelors Degree in Computer Science Information Technology or related field AND 12 years technical experience in software engineering network engineering or systems administration
- OR equivalent experience.
7 years technical experience working with large-scale cloud or distributed systems.
3 years people management experience
Experience operating or supporting services inregulated sovereign or compliance-sensitive environments.

Site Reliability 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:

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