Software Engineer II

Overview

We are hiring a Software Engineer II to help build threat-resistant platform capabilities for Windows Server across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud-connected deployments. This is a hands-on engineering role: you will turn security architecture and threat models into shipping code, implement secure-by-design features, close systemic classes of vulnerabilities, and strengthen the platform's trust boundaries from firmware and boot through the kernel, virtualization, identity, and management surfaces.

You will work on the platform's threat-resistant capabilities and bring secure-by-design and secure-by-default ideas to reality. You will translate evolving threats, security requirements, and customer needs into working software while owning the design and implementation of well-scoped components. Experience or demonstrated interest in operating system fundamentals and/or software and system security is a plus; experience with confidential computing or secure use of cryptography is valued.

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

Responsibilities

• Design and implement the validation framework to test and maintain secure-by-design features with automated test coverage, and fuzzing to catch defects early, and balancing security, reliability, performance, compatibility, and secure servicing. Apply secure defaults, hardening baselines, cryptographic standards, key management, auditability and logging in the components you own.
• Build observability pipelines through telemetry insights, security metrics, and health signals needed to measure how well those controls work in production.
• Contribute to threat modeling and security reviews and build mitigations for high-severity threats and systemic classes of vulnerabilities, validating each mitigation with targeted test cases and regression coverage so fixes hold over time.
• Support security incidents and partner with product, support, field, AI, and security-adjacent teams to assess impact, deliver containment and remediation fixes, use observability and telemetry to detect and diagnose issues, incorporate real-world attack patterns and operational constraints, and land post-incident hardening improvements
• Turn reference architectures, threat models, and security design patterns into production features, implementing and validating secure-by-design, secure-by-default, and cryptographic controls across the components you own with thorough testing, observability, and metrics.
  
  

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or a related technical field, and with 5+ years of technical engineering experience. Familiarity with virtualization concepts (vTPM, Measured Boot, Confidential Virtual Machines), on-premises management tooling, and PowerShell scripting. Experience with programming languages such as C, C++, and C#.
• Understanding of confidential computing technologies, hardware-rooted trust mechanisms (Intel TDX, AMD SEV-SNP), attestation, and secure key management concepts.
  
  

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

• Experience designing automated tests, validation frameworks, and production-quality software systems.
• Experience or demonstrated interest in OS fundamentals and/or software and system security is an important qualification for this role. Demonstrated work in confidential computing or the secure use of cryptography is valued.
• Demonstrated experience using cryptography in a secure way, including sound selection and application of cryptographic primitives, careful key management, and secure protocol design.
• Familiarity with platform security controls such as Secure Boot and TPM, virtualization-based security (VBS), code integrity, Credential Guard, WDAC/App Control, BitLocker, and Secured-core.
• Understanding of modern attacker techniques (credential theft, lateral movement, privilege escalation, persistence, and supply-chain or build attacks), the corresponding defenses, and how to detect them through security telemetry and observability.
  
  

#W+DJOBS

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.