Devs needed for the Internet of Things team at Microsoft

IotMy career is progressing in what appears to be five year cycles. Back in 2004, five years into my software dev career, I made the move from independent contractor to Microsoft employee. Five years into my Microsoft career, I made the move from web dev to mobile app dev because I wanted to do something different. Bing offered “search” and “mobile apps” – two things I had never had a chance to focus on. After a year in Bing, I moved to MSN because I wanted to learn how very large sites are developed and four years after that I moved to Ads for a special project. Then, five years after moving to Bing, and 15 years into my career, I got the itch to try something completely different. Something that would stretch me and something that was “uniquely Microsoft”. Bing, MSN and Ads presented a lot of challenges and I learned a lot, but I always felt like I could get that experience at any large company. After my “super secret project” was cancelled over a year ago, I spent a lot of time searching for something that met my very high bar of being fun, interesting, challenging and meaningful. I interviewed with many teams and many external companies – but never ended up finding that perfect fit for this season of my career. Until now.

When I was looking for something new I wasn’t overly concerned with title or team size. I wanted something to obsess about. Something that I could put my whole energy into. Something that I wouldn’t quickly lose interest in. Something that was more than just developing software and services. So, after months of searching I finally found what appears to be the perfect fit in the Internet of Things team at Microsoft.

I’m on my third week on the team and it’s pretty awesome. I spent my first week ramping up on Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Galileo, Netduino, Python, NFC, C/C++, .NET Micro Framework and electronics. Yesterday, I relearned how to solder and tomorrow I get ramped up on 3D printing. It’s so much fun. The most fun I have had at Microsoft. There’s so much I don’t know and that’s what I love about this role. A big part of why they brought me on is because of 15 years of software and services experience and I will definitely help out with all of that, but I want to be able to develop IoT solutions end to end so I’m starting from the ground up. I want to get into the mind of the maker and figure out how Microsoft can be part of that space. The team here is great – they are embedded/robotics/automotive people who have so much more knowledge than me, but are super graceful and patient with me and all my n00b questions.

Another big part of this role is that I get to hire a few devs. Once again I get the opportunity to build a team – which I love doing. I love recruiting because I get to talk with so many talented devs and I always learn a lot throughout that process. But this time it’s different. I’m not looking for web devs this time, I’m looking for devs with the maker mindset. Devs who love hacking hardware. Devs who get excited about things like home automation and connected everything. Devs who can talk with customers. Devs who can experiement, prototype and get ramped up on all things IoT and produce end to end proof of concepts. Devs who love the cloud. It’s basically Satya’s Cloud+Mobile vision coming to life. That’s got to be you.

If the above resonates with you then I strongly suggest you apply. Here’s how:

  1. Send me your resume via this form: http://bit.ly/emailjon – Include a short blurb about why you are the perfect dev for this team. Include all the IoT/Maker/Embedded stuff that you have created. It would also be good to mention any customer facing work you have done.
  2. Officially apply for the job here: http://bit.ly/msiotdev

Here’s the full job description:

The Internet of Things is upon us and will revolutionize the enterprise and consumer experience with both the internet and the physical world around us. The IoT organization is building the client and services platform that will enable this revolution, and within the Experiences organization we’re driving our success in the market by focusing on making Microsoft the fastest time-to-value solution in the industry. In this role you will be focused on helping us achieve our mission of making Microsoft’s IoT solution the fastest time-to-value solution in the market.

Success for our team will require that we deliver on great customer experiences (working with customers to deliver end-to-end IoT solutions and using this exposure to build subject matter expertise and drive requirements throughout Microsoft); developer experience (driving requirements and building solutions that make our IoT solution best-in-class for developers) and community experience (winning mindshare with enthusiasts, hobbyists and start-ups). We are currently looking for people who can help us drive the customer experience, leading 1:1 engagements with customers leveraging the Customer Advisory Teams (CAT) model used across several teams in Microsoft.

The ideal candidate will be someone whose ideal job involves working with developers to solve a difficult architectural or implementation issue (including hands-on coding and managing customer/vendor development teams) as we handle customer escalations, strengthen our customer connections and drive customer satisfaction to the next level. The ideal candidate will have a variety of experience in the embedded space delivering value in a rapid way using off the shelf and open source components. This candidate will have a wealth of real life experience with many different embedded operating system and is experienced in picking the right chipset, OS, development language, etc. to meet customer requirement.

In this role you will:

  • Work with customers to deliver best-in-class solutions and use this experience to identify requirements/gaps for the Microsoft IoT portfolio

  • Understand the competitive landscape and drive Microsoft differentiators and identify high-value opportunities

  • Build partnerships across Microsoft to deliver a comprehensive “seamless” IoT solution

  • Work closely across the IoT organization to drive requirements and product gaps into our platform and services organizations

  • Provide customer and developer focused leadership for the PMs, Developers and UX teams working across the IoT organization

Required Experience and Qualifications

  • 7+ years of Dev experiences

  • 7+ years of experience delivering specifications/requirements/stories for features

  • Development experience in all or several of the following: Embedded Linux (Yocto,…), Raspberry Pi, Other RTOS, C/C++, Java, Python, GIT and open source projects

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, national origin, marital status, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected status.