Senior Software Engineer - GitHub Actions

Overview

GitHub is growing its Engineering team and seeks experienced professionals to elevate our software engineering efforts. As a Senior Software Engineer at GitHub, you will architect and deliver high-performance systems that power collaboration for millions of developers. You will drive technical execution from design through production, leading initiatives across distributed teams. Within GitHub’s ecosystem, Actions powers automation for millions of developers worldwide, enabling them to build, test, and deploy code directly from their repositories. As the backbone of CI/CD workflows across GitHub, Actions processes billions of jobs monthly, from simple builds to complex deployment pipelines spanning multiple environments. Our team owns the core infrastructure and services that make this possible, ensuring reliability at massive scale. We're a group of engineers passionate about developer productivity, tackling challenges in distributed systems, container orchestration, security, and cloud infrastructure. You'll work alongside talented colleagues who value collaboration, operational excellence, and building products that developers love.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, test and ship high-quality technical solutions across GitHub Actions services. Participate in code reviews, pairing sessions, and technical discussions that raise the quality bar for the team. Own and advocate for the health and quality of the systems that the team builds, including participating in on-call for first responder rotations and live incidents. Design and implement APIs to facilitate seamless integration between software components. Collaborate with cross-functional teams and partner with stakeholders and lead discussions for technical solutions, including design and cost considerations. Contribute to comprehensive testing strategies, define success metrics, and incorporate customer feedback to drive continuous improvement. Support security across GitHub Actions by implementing isolation mechanisms for untrusted code execution and partnering with Security teams to address vulnerabilities in our services. Champion operational excellence by improving system reliability, reducing incident response times, and establishing best practices for monitoring, alerting, and runbooks across Actions services. Drive and support technical roadmap that aligns with product goals, ensuring that engineering efforts are strategically prioritized and incorporating the adoption of new technologies and methodologies where applicable.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications: Proven, substantial professional experience in software engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline, with a track record of independently owning and delivering production software end-to-end. Working fluency in one or more general-purpose programming languages such as Go, Ruby, Rust, Python, JavaScript, C, C++, C#, or Java — applied in production systems at scale. A degree in Computer Science, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Computer Engineering, or a related field — or equivalent depth of professional experience. Preferred Qualifications: Significant experience in one or more scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Python). Experience designing or operating distributed systems and cloud infrastructure. Familiarity with CI/CD concepts, or hands-on experience building or operating CI/CD systems. This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations. Apply To This Job