Principal Software Engineer, Backend Microsoft
Redmond, WA

Job Description

About Cognition

In Cognition, people-not devices-are at the center of everything we do. Our tech moves beyond screens and pixels, creating a new reality aimed at bringing us closer together-whether that's scientists "meeting" on the surface of a virtual Mars or some yet undreamt-of possibility. To get there, we're incorporating diverse groundbreaking technologies, from the revolutionary Holographic Processing Unit to computer vision, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and more. We're a growing team of talented engineers and artists putting technology on a human path across all platforms, including AR/VR, the Internet of Things, phones, tablets, desktops, and game consoles.

AltspaceVR @ Cognition

AltspaceVR is a Virtual Reality based communications platform that brings people together from around the world to experience live virtual events. People use AltspaceVR to host and attend live comedy shows, tech talks, LGBTQ meetups, meditation classes, and much more. Reggie Wats, Justin Roiland (Creator of Rick and Morty), NBC, Bill Nye and many others have used AltspaceVR to host events. AltspaceVR is available on Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality, Daydream by Google, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, and in 2D on your PC and Android phone. The team works with a wide range of languages and technologies including C#, Unity, TypeScript, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, and a variety of VR headsets. Our services build on Azure technologies like VMs (Linux and Windows), Web Apps, Redis, Storage, and Postgres DB. We strive to build a welcoming and intuitive platform for a diverse community of users. We'd love you to join us!

We're looking for an experienced engineer to help us build scalable, secure, and efficient services that power the AltspaceVR platform.

* 8+ years of experience with general purpose programming languages such as C#, Java, TypeScript, Ruby
* Proven ability to quickly learn new technologies and efficiently collaborate with partners to deliver outstanding results
* Experience designing, implementing, deploying, and maintaining scalable backend services
* Experience with AWS, Microsoft Azure or similar cloud computing platforms
* Passionate about security and privacy
* Attention to detail and a passion for high quality software
* Strong problem solving and debugging skills
* 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.

Bonus points

* Background in game development, an understanding of game development best practice or a track record of delivering engaging consumer experiences
* Experience with client server game engine networking (especially Photon)
* Enthusiasm for Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality experiences, devices, and development tools

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

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

* Expand and maintain our services infrastructure. This includes RESTful services, real-time multiplayer game servers, and supporting services and databases.
* Work closely together with the design and client developer teams to implement new features such as 1000+ user synchronization, friend graph, events management, telemetry, moderation, and user-generated content management.
* Manage our Azure-based backend, troubleshoot, fix bugs, and keep the platform running.
* Champion improvements in the quality and stability of live site and promote engineering best-practices.
* Act as a leader and an architect of the team to design and develop new capabilities of the platform.