The Principal Engineer role focuses on driving the architectural transformation of Conditional Access within Microsoft's identity platform. This position is critical in evolving the access control layer into a universal policy engine that supports users, workloads, and AI agents. The role emphasizes technical vision, cross-organizational collaboration, and the implementation of high-performance solutions. The team is dedicated to enhancing security and empowering users through innovative technology.

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, high-performance runtime engines, or policy/rules engines operating at extreme scale.
• Strong background in identity, authentication, authorization, or security infrastructure.
• Fluency in C# and large-scale .NET service development.

• Define the architecture for Conditional Access at identity-platform scale.
• Own the technical strategy for the CA evaluation engine processing millions of policy evaluations per second.
• Design the next-generation policy model that evaluates at token-time and at the data plane.
• Drive convergence of token-time CA and Continuous Access Evaluation into a unified enforcement architecture.
• Lead the CA-for-Agents technical vision and architect how CA evaluates agent identities.
• Drive cross-organizational technical alignment and integrate risk signals into CA evaluation.
• Represent CA engineering in architecture reviews and partner alignment forums.
• Influence the ESTS roadmap for protocol-level changes required for agent governance.
• Set standards for safe rollout of policy evaluation changes in a Tier 0 service.
• Drive testability and validation strategy for policy correctness and automation.
• Mentor senior engineers across the CA and ESTS stack.

• Employees at Microsoft are often offered comprehensive, “world-class” benefits—including health and mental-wellness programs, competitive pay with bonuses and stock awards, and retirement/savings options. Time-off and flexibility are common, with generous vacation and holidays, parental and caregiver leave, and flexible work schedules, alongside learning support, employee resource groups, product discounts, and matching-gifts/volunteering programs. Specific benefits can vary by region.