Principal Group Engineering Manager

Microsoft Corporation; City Of London; On-site; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company is seeking a Principal Software Group Engineering Manager in London. The role involves leading multiple teams focused on real-time actions within a cloud environment. Candidates must have strong leadership and technical expertise in cloud systems, with a focus on enhancing system reliability and mentoring engineers. This position offers competitive benefits and opportunities for career growth.

Benefits

Industry leading healthcare

Educational resources

Discounts on products and services

Savings and investments

Maternity and paternity leave

Generous time away

Giving programs

Opportunities to network and connect

Qualifications

• Strong technical focus on cloud and infrastructure.
• Solid people management especially in managing of managers.
• Ability to meet Microsoft security screening requirements.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and grow an organization of software engineers and managers.
• Create product and infrastructure vision to drive teams' plans.
• Enhance system monitoring, observability, and reliability.

Skills

Cloud and infrastructure management

People management

Technical leadership

Mentoring

DevOps automation

Job description

Microsoft is a company where passionate innovators come to collaborate, envision what can be and take their careers further. This is a world of more possibilities, more innovation, more openness, and the sky is the limit thinking in a cloud-enabled world. Microsoft’s Azure Data engineering team is leading the transformation of analytics in the world of data with products like databases, data integration, big data analytics, messaging & real-time analytics, and business intelligence. The products our portfolio include Microsoft Fabric, Azure SQL DB, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure PostgreSQL, Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Service Bus, Azure Event Grid, and Power BI. Our mission is to build the data platform for the age of AI, powering a new class of data-first applications and driving a data culture.

Within Azure Data, the messaging and real-time analytics team provides comprehensive solutions and a robust platform that enables users to ingest high granularity signals (real-time & observability) and complex data, converting those into a competitive advantage in real-time for both end users and modern applications.

We are looking for an experienced Principal Software Group Engineering Manager to lead 3 teams (based in Warsaw, Poland) delivering services and infrastructure within the Fabric Activator product, focusing on realtime Actions/Activations within the Fabric ecosystem using low-code/no-code. We expect a strong track record in leading multiple teams in delivering complex full stack architectures (UI, cloud services), and also cross-team initiatives in security, infrastructure, and automation. This role demands hands-on leadership and mentorship (to other Managers and Individual Contributors) but also deep technical expertise (with focus on distributed cloud systems and software engineering processes), strategic and product thinking. You will lead an organization of 20 people, distributed across 3 teams. You will also focus on enhancing system reliability, observability, and development velocity while fostering a culture of accountability, quality, and continuous improvement. As both a people and technical leader, you are expected to guide teams through career and skillset growth, architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and champion best practices to deliver enterprise-grade solutions at scale.

We do not just value differences or different perspectives. We seek them out and invite them in so we can tap into the collective power of everyone in the company. As a result, our customers are better served.

Qualifications

Required /Minimum Qualifications

• Strong technical focus on cloud and infrastructure.
• Solid people management especially in managing of managers

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/Additional Qualifications

• Familiar with security frameworks

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and grow an organization of strong software engineers and managers.
• Create product, process and infrastructure vision to drive the plans and roadmaps of the teams and managers.
• Ensure organization needs are met, create career opportunities, engage actively with local subsidiary on work life balance, office conditions and compensation.
• Supervise building and evolution of core backend services and cross-cutting infrastructure to support scalable and resilient systems.
• Automate DevOps workflows and operational tasks to improve efficiency and reduce manual overhead.
• Enhance system monitoring, observability, and reliability to ensure robust production performance.
• Set engineering standards through hands-on leadership, clean code practices, and technical mentorship.
• Collaborate across global teams to align on technology strategy, share innovations, and accelerate delivery.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

Industry leading healthcare

Educational resources

Discounts on products and services

Savings and investments

Maternity and paternity leave

Generous time away

Giving programs

Opportunities to network and connect

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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.