Principal Software Engineer, AKS Flex: High Scale

Microsoft

Confirmed live yesterday High trust

Remote

Quick summary

Work type: Remote
Location: Remote
Salary: $142,800–$274,800 / yr
Posted: 3 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live yesterday
Closes: Apr 4, 2027

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Salary context

Competitive pay

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $208k

This role $209k

$127k $291k

below market most similar roles pay here above market

This role pays more than 58% of similar roles. Most pay $174,600–$241,787 — the blue band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $209k versus about $208k for comparable roles.

Based on 240 similar postings.

Employer

About Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a global technology leader producing software, hardware, and cloud services including Windows, Office 365, Azure cloud platform, Xbox gaming, and Surface devices. Industry: Software & Cloud Computing

Microsoft currently has 585 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $119,800–$234,700 across 561 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Software Engineer, AKS Flex: High Scale

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JOB TITLE: Principal Software Engineer - AKS Flex: High Scale The Principal Software Engineer joins the AKS Flex team to lead the scaling of etcd and the Kubernetes control plane. This role involves designing and building the platform for flex nodes and the Unbounded open-source project, enabling a single AKS control plane to manage heterogeneous node fleets across on-premises data centers, edge sites, and other clouds. You will solve distributed-systems problems regarding control plane performance, consistency, durability, and node provisioning. Key responsibilities include optimizing etcd internals, managing write amplification, and developing Kubernetes-native APIs and CRDs. Required skills include proficiency in Go, Rust, C++, C#, or Python, alongside deep knowledge of Raft consensus, storage engines, and Kubernetes control plane internals. You will ensure reliable production operations for GPU-hungry AI workloads and data-residency-constrained customers.

What does a Software Engineer earn in Remote?

Median $208800 from 319 postings across 50 companies.

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Skills

Kubernetes etcd Go Rust C++ C# Java Python Azure distributed-systems Raft Consensus API Server CRDs B-trees LSM trees Write-Ahead Logging Performance Engineering PXE Boot

What you'll do

Own the architecture and multi-year technical roadmap for control plane scalability and the Unbounded platform.
Lead cross-organization design efforts for AKS, Azure compute, storage, networking, and identity interfaces.
Improve the performance, reliability, and efficiency of etcd and the Kubernetes API server under large node counts.
Design and validate architectural changes to the control plane storage layer, including partitioning and caching.
Build node provisioning and lifecycle automation for diverse substrates including bare-metal, edge, and other clouds.
Design Kubernetes-native APIs, controllers, and CRDs to make remote machines declaratively manageable at scale.
Represent Microsoft in upstream Kubernetes communities to drive proposals and build consensus with external maintainers.
Participate in production operations and on-call rotations to turn operational learnings into engineering improvements.

What we're looking for

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages like Go, Rust, C++, C#, Java, or Python (or equivalent experience).
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check.
Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience (preferred).
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 12+ years of technical engineering experience (preferred).
Deep understanding of etcd internals, including Raft consensus, MVCC, watch mechanism, compaction, defragmentation, and bbolt storage backend (preferred).
Deep understanding of storage systems and databases, including storage engines, write-ahead logging, replication, consistency models, transactions, and performance tuning (preferred).
Experience with Kubernetes control plane internals, including API server, watch cache, controller patterns, and scalability limits (preferred).
Experience with performance engineering, including profiling, load testing, capacity modeling, and diagnosing latency and throughput issues (preferred).

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