QualificationsC++AzureSQLJavaScriptPython
Our data is big! Each day we get millions of visitors, resulting in more than a billion customer data points. This data helps us constantly improve the shopping experience and find new ways to engage with our customers. But someone has to understand how to collect, format, and process that data so it’s useful. That’s where you come in.
About the team
The Data, Analytics, and Planning team (DAP) is one of several teams within Microsoft’s Store organization. DAP contributes to the store’s data engineering and data science operations. DAP is responsible for both the design and implementation of the Store’s data pipeline solutions. To accomplish this goal, we use a combination of Microsoft internal tools, external products, and custom technology we build ourselves.
Why is DAP special?
We pride ourselves on having a culture that strikes the right balance between the intense work ethic necessary to be successful and the active personal life necessary to be happy. If it’s a tough week and you need a mental health day (or two) you’ll have our support.
We’re a fun bunch – team hangs, goofy moral events, weekend chit-chat etc. are all a part of the job. But don’t get us wrong, when it’s time to work we’re all business.
We value diversity and inclusion (D&I). This means not shying away from having tough conversations about what’s going on in the broader world, listening to all voices in the room. The smaller sub-teams within DAP talk weekly about D&I issues that are important to them. We meet as a larger team twice a month to share our feelings as well.
Thought leadership is a term that’s overused, but we embrace it. How can we transform processes that are ad-hoc and hacky to make them structured and sustainable? How can we take the approaches to extract value from one dataset and proactively apply similar approaches to other datasets? How can we take a slow, manual process and find a way to automate it? Answering these questions is what thought leadership means to us.
We encourage innovation. If you have a cool idea, or just want to build something new and unusual, there is a good chance that you will have the full support of the tea. Some of most useful solutions started off as ideas that were pitched by individuals in non-management positions.
Responsibilities
You will be a Software Engineer and thought leader. Engineers in DAP are the backbone of the organization’s analytics capabilities. The data you produce will be used at Microsoft’s VP level to make real decisions about what the Store should do next. You will be responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining the data pipelines that contain information about how Microsoft customers use the store websites and applications. You are expected to make informed decisions about which technology to use to meet various project requirements, and to be thoughtful about the cost and benefit trade-off of building brand new tools from scratch. We don’t expect you to know everything, but we do expect you to want to learn and grow.
You will not be alone. You will work in a highly collaborative environment and will be expected to contribute your ideas during brainstorming discussions while being open to feedback about the efforts you own. Your projects will certainly impact others and depend on work outside of your immediate team. Therefore, you will have the opportunity to showcase your work to the partners that depend on you, and the responsibility of engaging with partners that your work depends on.
You will have an opportunity to play a leadership role. We take on large and challenging projects that require multiple engineers and managers to work together. You are guaranteed to have a chance to drive these large projects and to directly influence the work of other engineers.
To be successful in this role you should have the following demonstrated abilities:
You must have a growth mindset. You are not expected to know the technologies that are needed on day one, but you are expected to be willing to learn what’s required.
You need to be able to think critically. You will likely be the first person to solve the problems you are presented with, so knowing how to approach a difficult problem and derive clarity from chaos is an essential skill.
You should be organized and process oriented. You will work on long-term complex projects with multiple teams and individuals. The ability to clearly communicate requirements and expectations to others will be essential. You should be able to plan out work across multiple months, report on progress, ask for help, and adjust the strategy if necessary.
Qualifications
Knowledge in one or two of the following areas would make you more competitive for the role. You’re not expected to have experience in all of these areas.
Experience with data query languages and concepts. You will be looking at data a lot so being familiar with a SQL-like language is a plus. Data transformation terms like joins, unions, windowing, retention, row, column, and others will be used a lot. You should be able to query datasets in order to understand the data itself and build performant systems for processing that data.
Experience working in a highly matrixed environment. This means that you will depend on others outside of your team and that other teams will depend on you. Knowing how to manage those relationships and collaborate is essential.
Having knowledge of Azure based data processing technologies like EventHub, ADF, Cosmos/SCOPE, ALDS, AzureFunctions, or their equivalents is a plus.
Experience with both object oriented (C#, Java, C++) as well as scripting (JS, Python) programming languages and concepts is preferred.
This is not an entry level position so having experience in the software industry, academia, or sufficient education and training is required.
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.