Senior Software Design Engineer

Company: Microsoft
Location: Redmond
Posted on: November 1, 2025

Job Description:

The Xbox Video team is looking for a Senior Software Design Engineer who is passionate about video and is excited to work on cutting edge hardware. We are responsible for all things video related on Xbox and beyond! You will be working on low-level drivers and firmware interacting with the state-of-the-art graphics and video hardware as well as a variety of video technologies including but not limited to video encode, decode, color processing, motion estimation, rate control etc. You will be a member of an experienced team that is responsible for collaborating with internal and external partners to solve challenging problems in the area of Xbox video. Good understanding of general media concepts is valuable, should be comfortable working on driver and firmware-level code. 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. Qualifications Required Qualifications: Bachelors 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 equivalent experience. 3 years experience contributing to device drivers and kernel programming for consumer PCs or electronics. 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: Passion for all things video and video hardware. Deep design, coding, debugging, and problem solving skills. 2 years experience working on Windows drivers. Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $158,400 - $258,000 per year. Microsoft will accept applications for the role until October 2, 2025. Responsibilities Collaborates with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements for a scenario. Drives identification of dependencies and the development of design documents for a product, application, service, or platform. Creates, implements, optimizes, debugs, refactors, and reuses code to establish and improve performance and maintainability, effectiveness, and return on investment (ROI). Leverages subject-matter expertise of product features and partners with appropriate stakeholders (e.g., project managers) to drive a workgroups project plans, release plans, and work items. Acts as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) and guides other engineers by developing and following the playbook, working on call to monitor system/product/service for degradation, downtime, or interruptions, alerting stakeholders about status and initiates actions to restore system/product/service for simple and complex problems when appropriate. Proactively seeks new knowledge and adapts to new trends, technical solutions, and patterns that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of products while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scale.

Keywords: Microsoft, Redmond , Senior Software Design Engineer, IT / Software / Systems , Redmond, Washington