Software Engineering Manager

Overview

Join the team powering the foundational messaging platform behind Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, and Copilot experiences used by hundreds of millions of users worldwide. The M365 Core Messaging organization builds and operates the large-scale distributed systems that enable real-time communication, collaboration, AI orchestration, and enterprise productivity at global scale.

As an engineering leader, you will help define and execute the next generation of messaging and AI infrastructure that powers Microsoft Copilot experiences across the M365 ecosystem. This role sits at the center of Microsoft's AI transformation, requiring deep technical expertise, strong organizational leadership, and the ability to drive large-scale platform investments critical to the future of enterprise productivity.

You will lead highly strategic initiatives across messaging infrastructure, distributed systems scalability, AI-driven platform evolution, operational excellence, and foundational service architecture. The role requires close partnership across engineering, product, infrastructure, and research organizations to build resilient, performant, and intelligent platforms capable of supporting rapidly growing Copilot and Teams workloads.

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We embrace a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive.

Responsibilities

* Technical Excellence & Engineering Leadership - Establish deep expertise across the architecture, platform, and operational landscape, serving as a technical leader and force multiplier for the organization. Drive high engineering standards through architecture guidance, hands-on technical engagement, code reviews, and adoption of AI-forward development practices that improve engineering quality, velocity, and efficiency.

* Organizational Leadership & Talent Development - Build and lead a high-performing, inclusive engineering organization by coaching and developing engineers across levels. Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and operational ownership while providing clear feedback, mentorship, and career guidance.

* Strategic Direction & Execution Alignment - Translate business priorities and organizational objectives into clear technical strategy and execution plans. Leverage customer insights, operational data, and market awareness to inform investment areas, prioritize initiatives, and guide long-term platform and product direction.

* Customer & Product Partnership - Partner closely with customers, product management, and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure customer needs, usage signals, and feedback directly influence product strategy, prioritization, and engineering execution.

* Operational Excellence & Live Site Leadership - Maintain a high bar for service reliability, scalability, security, and performance across large-scale distributed systems. Drive excellence in incident management, deployment quality, root cause analysis (RCA), and systemic reliability improvements while strengthening operational rigor and live site readiness.

* Execution Discipline & Delivery Ownership - Ensure predictable, high-quality execution against organizational commitments through strong prioritization, risk management, planning, and accountability. Balance short-term deliverables with long-term strategic and technical investments.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

* Bachelor'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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, 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 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

* OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python

* OR equivalent experience.

* 4+ years people management experience.

* 2+ years of experience building distributed, near real-time, high-load systems.

* Familiarity with modern software design patterns (microservices, containers, caching, queuing).

* Experience with incident management and resolution.

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