Senior Software Engineer
Job details
- Pay
- $119,800 – $234,700 a year
- Level
- Senior
- Experience
- 4+ years
- Education
- Bachelor's degree
- Posted
- Sep 21, 2026
- Last confirmed open
- Oct 28, 2026
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About this role
Overview The Azure Core Network Interface Cards (NIC) team designs, develops, and deploys multiple generations of Smart Network Interface Cards (SmartNICs) that deliver advanced hardware offloads, including Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and other high-performance networking capabilities.
As Azure's networking requirements continue to grow, the team is expanding to support the increasing demand for high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, high availability, and efficient compute utilization across both Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads and general-purpose cloud infrastructure.
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.
Responsibilities
- Lead development of next-generation Azure SmartNIC and networking software capabilities.
- Drive architecture and technical execution for RDMA, virtualization, offload technologies, and high-performance networking scenarios.
- Collaborate with hardware, firmware, silicon, and cloud service teams to deliver end-to-end platform innovations.
- Define and drive reliability and performance improvements based on production telemetry and customer usage patterns.
- Influence networking platform strategy and future technical investments.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C++, C, Java, 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 the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Preferred Qualifications
- 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, Java, or Python
- OR 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, Java, or Python
- OR equivalent experience.
- Experience in the following:
- leading the technical design and delivery of complex engineering projects across multiple components or services;
- designing scalable, maintainable, and highly available software architectures;
- driving feature-area ownership, technical decision-making, and project execution with minimal oversight;
- collaborating with multiple engineering teams to deliver cross-functional solutions;
- troubleshooting, debugging, and root-cause analysis skills in production environments;
- mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership through design and code reviews.
- Experience with the following:
- networking technologies including TCP/IP, RDMA, Ethernet, DPDK, SR-IOV, SmartNICs, or network virtualization;
- Linux systems, kernel development, drivers, or performance-sensitive software;
- building services for cloud-scale distributed systems;
- hardware-software integration, firmware interactions, or platform infrastructure;
- driving technical strategy and architecture across multiple teams;
- operating and improving highly available services in production environments;
- leading incident response efforts and driving systemic reliability improvements.
- Knowledge of Azure networking, virtualization, storage networking, or high-performance computing workloads.
#azurecorejobs
Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $160,200 - $261,000 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
This 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.