Software Engineer 2

Would you be excited to drive major changes to a scale service that is critical to the company? Substrate is the data and intelligence platform that enables internal partner teams at Microsoft to build, deploy, and maintain compliant productivity apps and services with reduced effort and faster time to market. We work closely with partners across M365 to enable critical suite-wide scenarios.

The Substrate Core Foundation Performance team powers the infrastructure that underpins Microsoft 365’s most critical services. We are a high-impact, forward-looking team focused on building intelligent, scalable, and cost-efficient platforms that enable Microsoft to deliver world-class productivity experiences to billions of users. Our mission is to drive operational excellence and innovation across the M365 fleet by leveraging AI, automation, and deep platform integration.

We are looking for a passionate and growth-oriented **Software Engineer 2** to join our team in building a unified attribution platform that drives financial accountability and operational efficiency across Microsoft’s shared infrastructure. This role offers an opportunity to work on impactful systems that enable accurate cost attribution, usage transparency, and optimization insights across FinOps platforms. This system aims to improve cost visibility, drive accountability, and incentivize optimization by aligning expenses with actual usage. The initiative is designed to scale through standardized telemetry ingestion, automated reporting, and integration with FinOps systems, enabling sustained savings and operational discipline in future fiscal years.

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**:

- Contribute to the design and development of a scalable attribution platform that processes usage, cost, and telemetry data.
- Implement features that support on-behalf billing logic and integrate with FinOps systems.
- Assist in building dashboards and reporting tools that highlight usage trends and optimization opportunities.
- Collaborate with senior engineers and cross-functional teams to ensure data accuracy and alignment with platform goals.
- Support automation of reporting workflows and contribute to budget planning tools for engineering and finance stakeholders.

**Qualifications**:
**Required 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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- OR equivalent experience.
- Familiarity with cloud platforms and interest in FinOps or cost optimization strategies.
- Experience writing queries with SQL and using MySQL.
- Experience working with LLMs and prompt engineering.
- Understanding distributed systems, data pipelines, or telemetry platforms is a plus.
- Exposure to data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI, Grafana) is a bonus.
- Solid communication skills and a collaborative mindset.

**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**:

- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
- OR related technical field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- OR Master'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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- OR equivalent experience.