Principal, Customer Solution Engineer (Fundamentals, Performance & Reliability)

Microsoft · United States · $142,800 - $274,800 USD · Posted 2026-10-07

Overview

The Windows Commercial Acceleration Engine (WCAE) team is building a forward-deployed engineering capability that works directly with strategic enterprise customers to solve their most consequential Windows technical challenges.

Be part of a culture that pursues and celebrates excellence and drives innovation where success is a shared journey from a One Microsoft approach.

As a Principal Customer Solution Engineer (Windows Device Management), you will join the Windows Commercial Acceleration Engine (WCAE) team as part of the Windows Ecosystem and Commercial Engagement (WECE) organization in Windows + Devices.

In this hands-on engineering role, you will work directly with strategic enterprise customers to identify, diagnose, and resolve their most complex Windows challenges to improve their install base health. You will apply deep technical expertise across Windows performance, reliability, power and battery life, startup and sign-in experience, application responsiveness, resource utilization, drivers, services, diagnostics, telemetry, and OS health.

You will leverage telemetry, logs, code, scripts, configurations, policies, and engineering systems to investigate and move complex issues from discovery to measurable resolution. You will collaborate closely with customers, field teams, and Windows product engineering. Your technical depth, customer empathy, and ability to operate across disciplines will be key to delivering measurable customer and business outcomes. This work will be pivotal to the success of the Windows Commercial business.

Success in this role will be defined by remediating the customer as well as turning successful solutions into re-usable packaged solutions, diagnostic tools, product improvements, and implementation guidance that will benefit many more customers and strengthen Windows at scale.

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

Swarm on a customer engagement to dive deep into fundamentals and improve the install-base health of strategic Windows commercial customers with hands-on technical engagement.

Discover: Embed with strategic enterprise customers to understand device performance, reliability, boot and sign-in experience, battery life, application responsiveness, system resource utilization, and operational workflows. Use telemetry, traces, logs, dumps, diagnostics, and customer evidence to identify performance bottlenecks, reliability failures, regressions, and systemic issues.
Build and implement technical resolution and modernize device management to resolve install base health challenges: Design and implement solutions with customers. When needed, develop prototypes, scripts, diagnostic tools, configuration changes, and implementation approaches, then validate them in customer environments to demonstrate measurable improvements. Apply solid engineering fundamentals including security, privacy, maintainability and supportability. Validate solution in customer environments to demonstrate measurable improvements.

Partner with engineering for complex cross-product issues.

Collaborate with Windows Shell, Performance, Reliability, Update, Drivers, Servicing, Security, and other product engineering teams to investigate complex cross-product issues and drive product fixes, supportability changes, and telemetry enhancements supported by actionable customer evidence including detailed reproduction information, logs, etc., and business impact.
Customer Solution Engineer will maintain accountability for the customer outcome.

Scale successful approaches for broad impact.

Identify patterns across customer environments and convert findings into reusable diagnostics, troubleshooting methodologies, automation, telemetry insights, and engineering recommendations.
Transfer expertise to the team, partners, field, support teams, and product groups so each engagement increases the capability of the broader ecosystem.

Deliver measurable customer and business outcomes.

Demonstrate improvement in customers install base health through customer evidence, telemetry, validation results, or agreed success measures.
Help restore customer confidence in Windows and strengthen the role of Windows in customers’ future endpoint, security, management, and AI-platform strategies.
Build trusted relationships with customer technical leaders, Microsoft field teams, and product engineering teams.
Communicate technical findings, tradeoffs, risks, decisions, and progress clearly to customer engineers, IT leaders, Microsoft field teams, product engineers, and executives.

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

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 working directly with enterprise customers to understand complex technical environments, diagnose problems and identify root cause, and implement or validate solutions.
Broad understanding of customer deployments across Windows, Intune and Security to serve as a baseline of understanding and operating in customer environments.
Experience diagnosing Windows performance, reliability, startup, sign-in, battery, resource utilization, application responsiveness, or device health issues.
Experience using Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA), WPR, ProcMon, ETW tracing, Event Viewer, crash dumps, hang dumps, Reliability Monitor, or similar diagnostic technologies.
Experience building automation, diagnostic tooling, scripts, prototypes, or technical investigations.
Ability to synthesize information from multiple sources, identify systemic patterns and root causes, and translate findings into practical customer solutions and actionable product feedback.
Experience collaborating across customer, field, support, and product engineering teams to drive technical issues from discovery through resolution.
Ability to communicate complex technical findings, risks, and recommendations clearly to technical and executive audiences.
Experience with Microsoft Consulting Services, Industry Solutions, Customer Success, FastTrack, or a comparable enterprise technology consulting organization.

#W+DJOBS

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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.

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Updated 2026-10-11.