Software Engineer II

** Overview*
* Do you want to help shape the future of gaming and bring high-quality XBOX experiences to players wherever they choose to play? The XBOX Cloud Gaming Server team builds and operates the technology that powers game streaming at global scale. Our work sits at the intersection of gaming, cloud services, Windows systems, virtualization, inter-process communication, networking, streaming technology, and data center hardware.

We are looking for a Software Engineer II in Redmond, WA to design, build, and improve the server platform behind XBOX Cloud Gaming. In this role, you will contribute to reliable, secure, and high-performance systems that serve players around the world. You will work with engineers and product partners across XBOX to deliver features from design through production, diagnose complex issues across hardware and software boundaries, and continuously improve the quality and efficiency of our services.

You will also help evolve how we build and operate software in the AI era. You will use AI-assisted development tools and agentic workflows responsibly, automate repetitive engineering and operational tasks, and apply telemetry and data-driven insights to improve reliability, performance, and developer velocity. This is an opportunity to deepen your skills in distributed systems, Windows and C++ engineering, virtualization, inter-process communication technologies such as gRPC Remote Procedure Call (gRPC) and Component Object Model (COM), networking, observability, and live-site operations while contributing to the next generation of cloud gaming.

** Responsibilities*
* + Design, implement, test, and maintain extensible, diagnosable, and reliable software for XBOX Cloud Gaming server systems and services.

+ Contribute to technical designs, identify dependencies, and collaborate with engineering and product partners to deliver secure, scalable solutions that meet player and business needs.

+ Write high-quality code, participate in code reviews, and apply engineering best practices for maintainability, performance, security, and compliance.

+ Debug complex issues across applications, operating systems, virtualization layers, inter-process and remote procedure call boundaries, networks, cloud services, and hardware by using logs, telemetry, traces, and diagnostic tools.

+ Build observability into features and services, analyze production data, conduct root-cause investigations, and apply incident learnings to improve reliability and player experience.

+ Develop automated unit, integration, and scenario tests, and use safe deployment practices to validate and release changes with confidence.

+ Participate in live-site operations and an on-call rotation for the services the team owns, helping mitigate incidents and improve operational readiness.

+ Use AI-assisted engineering tools and agentic workflows responsibly to accelerate development, testing, diagnostics, and documentation while maintaining human review, security, privacy, and quality standards.

+ Identify opportunities to automate repetitive engineering and operational work, improve developer workflows, and increase service efficiency.

+ Embody Microsoft's culture and values and contribute to an inclusive environment where people can do their best work.

** 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*
* + Experience designing, implementing, testing, or debugging production software.

+ Experience using logs, telemetry, or diagnostic tools to investigate software or service issues.

+ Experience developing in C++ and working with Windows systems, operating-system components, virtualization technologies, or hardware-adjacent software.

+

Experience with inter-process communication or remote procedure call technologies such as gRPC, COM, or similar frameworks.

+ Experience building or operating distributed cloud services with attention to scalability, availability, performance, and security.

+ Knowledge of networking fundamentals and real-time, media, or game-streaming systems.

+

Experience with observability, including logging, metrics, tracing, monitoring, alerting, or reliability measurement.

+

Experience with automated testing, continuous integration and continuous delivery, infrastructure or configuration automation, and safe deployment practices.

+ Experience participating in live-site support, incident response, root-cause analysis, or service reliability improvements.

+ Experience using AI-assisted development tools, coding assistants, or agentic workflows responsibly to improve engineering effectiveness.

+ Demonstrated problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills in a multidisciplinary engineering environment.

+ Passion for gaming, customer-focused engineering, and learning new technologies.

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