Principal Software Engineer - GitHub Actions

GitHub is expanding its Engineering team and seeks experienced professionals to elevate our software engineering efforts. As a Principal Software Engineer within the GitHub Actions Team, you will architect and deliver high-performance systems that power collaboration for millions of developers. You will drive technical execution from design through production, leading initiatives across distributed teams.

Within GitHub’s ecosystem, Actions powers automation for millions of developers worldwide, enabling them to build, test, and deploy code directly from their repositories. As the backbone of CI/CD workflows across GitHub, Actions processes billions of jobs monthly, from simple builds to complex deployment pipelines spanning multiple environments. Our team owns the core infrastructure and services that make this possible, ensuring reliability at massive scale. We're a group of engineers passionate about developer productivity, tackling challenges in distributed systems, container orchestration, security, and cloud infrastructure. You'll work alongside talented colleagues who value collaboration, operational excellence, and building products that developers love.

If you are not based in Czech Republic, the role will require relocation.

• Design, develop, test and ship high-quality technical solutions that scale across multiple GitHub services.
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, pairing opportunities, and code reviews to encourage the growth of others; support teams in producing extensible and maintainable code, ensuring integration with downstream dependencies and adherence to quality standards.
• Own and advocate for the health and quality of the systems that the team builds, including participating in on-call for first responder rotations and live incidents.
• Design and implement APIs to facilitate seamless integration between software components.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and partner with stakeholders and lead discussions for technical solutions, including design and cost considerations.
• Lead the team in developing comprehensive testing strategies, defining success metrics, and incorporating customer feedback to drive continuous improvement.
• Champion security across GitHub Actions by designing and implementing isolation mechanisms for untrusted code execution, ensuring compliance with enterprise security requirements, and partnering with Security teams to protect against vulnerabilities in our services.
• Champion operational excellence by improving system reliability, reducing incident response times, and establishing best practices for monitoring, alerting, and runbooks across Actions services.
• Drive and support technical roadmap that aligns with product goals, ensuring that engineering efforts are strategically prioritized and incorporating the adoption of new technologies and methodologies where applicable.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field and demonstrated technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience. 
• Demonstrated experience with large-scale system architecture and design, particularly in cloud-based environments, with a strong understanding of distributed systems and microservices.  
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Preferred Qualifications:

• Technical leadership experience
• Experience using general purpose programming languages (e.g., Go, Ruby, or a similar language)
• Experience in one or more scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Python, or a similar language)
• Experience building or operating CI/CD systems at scale

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.