Overview
We are looking for a Principal Corporate Technology Engineer to engineer the identity, SaaS, access-governance, internal application, integration, and endpoint capabilities that Microsoft AI operates or configures at the divisional layer.
Microsoft AI is an organization of approximately 1500 people within a much larger company, that values its flexibility to define the workflows appropriate for AI model research – which are not the same as the workflows needed to develop massive enterprise software. As a result, while Microsoft central teams own many important centralized services (like identity), Microsoft AI has a role in making our endpoints, SaaS products and unique services work well and securely in partnership with central identity, security, IT, privacy, compliance, and engineering teams. Initial areas include Slack, Mac operations, and other SaaS products; and their interaction with identity governance and administration and workflow automation.
This is not a general end-user support role. You may work directly with employees to understand difficult failures, test workflows, or resolve high-complexity cases, but success means reducing recurring support through better systems, secure defaults, automation, documentation, and self-service.
Scale and supportability are key parts of this role. Low-code and no-code automations can be helpful, as can scripting or light development work, especially in the age of AI agents (where we have a lot to contribute) – you will be expected to choose the right implementation method for the problem, so long as the result is be secure, resilient, maintainable, measurable, and appropriate for the operating environment.
How We Work
We move with pace and urgency – every week brings new advancements in the frontier, and we don’t want to be blockers. We prefer a useful first implementation over a plan, provided the first implementation doesn’t turn into an albatross over time.
We treat corporate technology as a product and a security-sensitive operating system. We use the services, workflows, and guidance we create. Living with the outcome keeps our work grounded and creates a strong incentive to simplify it, document it, and improve it.
We build credibility through technical depth, accurate risk communication, and reliable follow-through. When a decision is needed, we escalate with evidence, options, and a clear request rather than surprising a partner team.
What You Will Do
Core Responsibilities
- Own divisional corporate technology problems from discovery through requirements, architecture, implementation, deployment, adoption, operation, measurement, and continuous improvement.
- Maintain a current inventory of the SaaS, identity, application, and integration surface Microsoft AI owns or configures. Use it to find hidden risk, ownership gaps, control drift, and recurring operational failure before they become incidents.
- Secure and operate Microsoft AI's SaaS estate. Improve identity integration, SSO and SCIM, administrative roles, guest and external access, OAuth and third-party integrations, data and retention controls, audit logging, service health, and incident readiness.
- Engineer identity and access capabilities using Entra and connected systems. Improve authentication, authorization, conditional access, enterprise applications, application identities, privileged access, joiner-mover-leaver workflows, access packages, reviews, deprovisioning, and audit evidence.
- Build internal applications, automations, integrations, and self-service workflows using the appropriate combination of low-code/no-code platforms, APIs, event-driven services, configuration as code, and conventional software engineering.
- Design secure, adaptable integration and data layers across SaaS, identity, workflow, endpoint, and business systems. Account for permissions, secrets, schema and API change, reconciliation, idempotency, partial failure, retries, auditability, and human escalation.
- Establish tested delivery paths, automated validation, telemetry, dashboards, alerting, rollback, runbooks, and service-health measures. Detect silent failures and turn recurring operational issues into durable engineering improvements.
- Partner with Microsoft central teams to define service boundaries, clarify decision rights, navigate shared dependencies, and deliver outcomes without duplicating central capabilities or creating unsupported technology.
What Makes This Role Different
- You engineer durable systems rather than resolve recurring issues one ticket at a time. Configuration is part of the work, but the goal is a service with clear architecture, deployment, telemetry, ownership, and improvement mechanisms.
- You work across implementation layers. A Power Automate workflow, a SaaS configuration, a service integration, and a coded application each have legitimate uses. You are expected to understand the tradeoffs and select deliberately.
- You operate across organizational boundaries. You will represent Microsoft AI's requirements and constraints to central service owners while preserving supportability, policy alignment, and shared architecture.
- You optimize for secure employee productivity. Controls should make safe work easier, not create avoidable friction. When people bypass a system, you investigate the system as well as the behavior.
- You leave the environment less dependent on you. Reusable platforms, patterns, documentation, standards, and mentoring are part of the outcome.
Required/Minimum Qualifications
- Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat modeling, cyber security, anomaly detection, Security Operations Center (SOC) detection, threat analytics, security incident and event management (SIEM), information technology (IT), or operations incident response
- OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 4+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat modeling, cyber security, anomaly detection, Security Operations Center (SOC) detection, threat analytics, security incident and event management (SIEM), information technology (IT), or operations incident response
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 6+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large-scale computing, threat modeling, cyber security, anomaly detection, Security Operations Center (SOC) detection, threat analytics, security incident and event management (SIEM), information technology (IT), or operations incident response
- OR equivalent experience.
Preferred/Additional Qualifications
Preferred qualifications are not independent pass/fail gates; candidates who meet some but not all are encouraged to apply.
- Doctorate in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large scale computing, threat modeling, cyber security, or anomaly detection
- OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large scale computing, threat modeling, cyber security, or anomaly detection
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field AND 12+ years experience in software development lifecycle, large scale computing, threat modeling, cyber security, or anomaly detection
- OR equivalent experience.
Security Operations Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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.