Software Engineer II - Data Platform & Database Systems

Overview

Windows runs on over a billion devices worldwide, and the Windows Data team turns the signal from that ecosystem into the insights that shape the product. We manage, optimize, improve, and extend several multi-petabyte modern MPP (massively parallel processing) database systems — engineering at a scale where familiar solutions stop working and the harder, more interesting problems begin.

This is a code-intensive role. As a Software Engineer II, you'll work across cloud services, data platform engineering, database systems, and supporting data engineering, with room to go deep into the internals of distributed data and database engines: query execution, storage formats, and performance.

We're an AI-native team. Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted development and agentic tooling are part of the daily craft here — not just to produce code but to build tools and observe cloud-based systems at scale.

This role is also at the intersection between Windows and data, potentially helping hundreds of millions of Windows users have a better experience.

At Microsoft, our mission—to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more—guides how we partner with customers to deliver trusted, impactful solutions. With a growth mindset culture, we innovate responsibly and measure success by shared progress—people, teams, and customers. Join us to do meaningful work that changes the world and helps shape what’s next for everyone.

Responsibilities

Day to Day Responsibilities

• Build at a scale that changes the problem. Deploy, extend and operate multi-petabyte MPP — StarRocks, ClickHouse, Trino/Presto, Spark, Druid, Kusto.
• Go deep into database internals. Work on query execution, vectorized processing, cost-based optimization, and columnar storage formats such as Parquet and Arrow, and understand these engines from the inside out.
• Work across the stack and across languages. Move between services in Python, Java, and Go and performance-critical native code in C++ — deep expertise in any single language isn't expected, just a readiness to follow the problem wherever it leads.
• Engineer the lakehouse on cloud infrastructure working with open table formats (Delta Lake, Iceberg, Hudi, Paimon) and build on cloud services and container orchestration with Kubernetes.
• Practice AI-native engineering. Use AI-assisted development and agentic tooling as part of the daily workflow, build AI directly in decision-making systems and operations, and help define how the team uses it on real production systems.
• Own components and partner for impact. Shape architecture, make build-vs-adopt decisions, and own components end to end while partnering with data scientists and product managers on data that shapes decisions for hundreds of millions of Windows users.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 2+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• 3+ years of proven coding and debugging skills in object-oriented languages. C#, C++, Java, or equivalent.
• Practical experience with Kubernetes, StarRocks, Clickhouse, Kafka, Flink, Trino, real-time/NRT systems, open-source data platforms.
• Scripting language experience Python and SQL.
• Experience with cloud platforms and services, such as Azure, etc.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with teammates and work successfully in a group environment.
• Data science, experimentation, or model-building adjacent experience.
• Experience in designing, developing, and shipping code with secure continuous integration and continuous delivery practices (CI/CD).
• Experience with data streaming, data modeling, data warehousing, and ETL (extract/transform/load).

#W+DJOBS

Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 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.