Are you motivated by pushing the limits of software that manages millions of databases across a wide price/performance spectrum?  The Azure SQL DB Placement and Load Balancing (PLB) team is embarking on a new and exciting journey to re-architect the placement and load balancing component that governs how SQL DB database replicas are placed and moved across nodes within our SQL DB clusters.  The component interacts with numerous other distributed components in the cluster and make decisions in real-time as to what the state of the cluster is, where new incoming customer databases can be placed, and what may be the potential impact of these placement decisions.  Examples of impact include both from the business standpoint, as well as the customer experience and performance (aka quality of service) standpoint. 

This work focuses on cluster orchestration, usually a part of the “control plane” of cloud systems, and, is related to SQL DB’s tight integration with Microsoft’s Service Fabric cloud orchestrator (the same class of system as Kubernetes).  The problem at hand is broadly a distributed systems problem, with an eye towards designing and building a solution that will stand the test of time (think decade).  The complexity of the component interaction graph and dependencies that are taken on the PLB component are substantial but justified due its mission critical nature. 

The work done here will encompass all aspects of end-to-end distributed systems development, including performing requisite analysis of terabytes of cloud telemetry to make data-driven (design) decisions.  Experimentation, presenting and advocating for solutions for robust solutions with high ROI is expected.  Finally, this is a new effort within SQL DB, members of this team will have the opportunity to get involved with a lot of ground-level issues, challenges, as well as opportunities that are rare within a mature service like Azure SQL DB. 

Responsibilities

As a member of this amazing team, you will participant in all stages of our cloud offering lifecycle - from initial research, discovery, data science, solution prototyping, development, testing, debugging, all the way through deployment to stage, production and operation readiness.   You will have the opportunity to wear multiple hats to demonstrate breadth, depth, and leadership.   Placement and load-balancing is a complex and highly sensitive area where even one change in the algorithms and policies can have immediate and impactful changes to customer experience as well as the economics of the business.  We are looking for someone to help determine and build the next generation of algorithms and software for this crucial area of Azure SQL DB.  

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:  

• Great curiosity and willingness to question, undaunted by hard technical problems. 
• Strong design, implementation, and communication skills
• Propensity to follow through on commitments, relentless drive.
• Proficiency with C++, or C#, or JAVA, experience with SQL
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with a focus on systems or data management (database systems)
• Some knowledge background in statistically significant testing methods, or signal analysis 

Preferred Qualifications:  

• Master’s+ degree in Systems, Computer Science is a plus 
• 1+ years of experience with at-scale distributed systems 
• 1+ years of experience with large-scale data analytics and appropriate data systems  
• Experience with orchestration systems like Service Fabric/Kubernetes 
• Some knowledge of bin-packing or scheduling algorithms

#AZDAT #ENGGJOBS 

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.  

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.