Software Development Engineer II

Overview

The Core Platform Driver team is seeking a Software Development Engineer II passionate about working on a state-of-the-art gaming platform. Our team operates at the intersection of hardware and software, collaborating with hardware and software engineers to advance graphics and provide industry-leading game development technology. In Core OS, we are responsible for building and optimizing operating systems across Azure, Microsoft Linux OS, Windows Client, Xbox, and Windows Server platforms, supporting cloud services for billions of customers worldwide. In this era of ubiquitous computing, systems software excellence has never been more important. Delivering high-quality, efficient systems software is critical to Microsoft’s success, ensuring reliability, reducing costs, and enabling innovative features that delight customers.

In this role, you will contribute to building and optimizing platform components, driving improvements in system performance, reliability, and efficiency. Hands-on experience with power management across Windows and Linux is essential. Expertise in graphics stacks, including engine runtime, drivers, microcode, and hardware, combined with experience in performance analysis and tooling, will help us in our mission to deliver next-generation gaming experiences.

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

• Use performance tools to triage graphics workloads, identify CPU & GPU hotspots, and recommend hardware and software improvements.
• Analyze and triage memory-related performance issues involving utilization, paging, residency, allocation latency, and priorities; quantify impact and recommend software improvements.
• Analyze power management across the full stack—including PMFW, OS power policies, core idle and park states, and heterogeneous core selection—using power tools to measure runtime behavior in games and identify optimization opportunities.
• Develop benchmarks and tests that exercise key GPU and CPU performance areas, including memory, compiler behavior, power, API features, and related components.
• Evaluate gaming performance across Windows and Linux stacks to identify opportunities for improving software and hardware components.
• Work independently with internal and external teams to deliver solutions across related software components.
• Uses appropriate artificial intelligence (AI) tools and practices across the software development lifecycle (SDLC) in a disciplined manner.
• Supports efforts to use debugging, tests, tools, logs, telemetry, and other methods to proactively verify assumptions before issues occur for product features in production.
• Contributes to bringing insight to code reviews to help improve code quality, coaching and providing feedback to develop other engineers' skills with minimal guidance.
• Creates and implements code for a product, service, or feature, reusing code as applicable with minimal supervision.
• Writes and learns to create code that is extensible and maintainable. Considers diagnosability, reliability, and maintainability with few defects, and understands when the code is ready to be shared and delivered.
• With minimal supervision, tests and explores various design options for a product/solution feature, outlining strengths and weaknesses of each option.
• Collaborates with architects with minimal supervision to build and modify a product/solution feature, providing feedback as needed
• Creates a clear test strategy that ensures solution quality, prevents regression from being introduced into existing code with minimal supervision.
• Runs code in simulated, or other non-production environments to confirm functionality and error-free runtime for products with little to no oversight.
• Builds knowledge, shares new ideas, and shares pinpoints of engineering tool gaps to improve software developer tools to support easier, faster, and more effective software engineering for complex product features.
• Contributes to efforts to ensure the correct processes are followed to achieve a high degree of security, privacy, safety, and accessibility.
• Reviews work items to deepen knowledge of product features in partnership with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., technical program managers) and executes project plans, release plans, and work items.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum 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++.
  • 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 3+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++.
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 5+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++.
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 4+ years Windows Graphics driver software stack experience.
• 2+ years of system level performance optimization experience in both Linux and Windows.
• Technical experience in graphics tooling such as GPUView, Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA), Radeon GPU Profiler (RGP), AMD uProf, PIX, and related or equivalent tooling.
• Technical experience in DirectX11-12 graphics APIs and Vulkan
• Technical experience in compiler technologies such as HLSL, LLVM, and machine ISA.

 

#W+DJOBS

Software Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 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.