Principal Firmware Engineer

Microsoft Silicon and Cloud Hardware Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team behind Microsoft's expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft's "Intelligent Cloud" mission. SCHIE delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Skype, OneDrive and the Microsoft Azure platform globallywith our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for a Principal Firmware Engineer to help achieve that mission.As Microsoft's cloud business continues to grow the ability to deploy new offerings and HW infrastructure on time, in high volume with high quality and lowest cost is of paramount importance.The Silicon and Cloud Hardware Infrastructure Engineering Firmware Development team is responsible for design and development of Server and Rack Infrastructure Firmware for Microsoft's online services. Our teams are responsible for firmware development and validation of server, silicon and rack infrastructure design with a focus on innovation for Azure infrastructure for Microsoft and their customers. We are seeking a Principal Firmware Engineer with a passion for building reliable, scalable distributed systems; If you want experiene in firmware and system debug experience and like to produce impact across a large number of systems; if you have a penchant to learn and utilize your skill set to produce customer impact; then this opportunity is for you.

• Architectural and "Big Picture" Vision: Understand the system-level "big picture" to define and execute on the architecture for automation framework/infrastructure used in firmware validation across multiple organizations.
• Design and Development: understanding of object-oriented programming and design patterns (creational, structural, behavioral). Ability to design modular, maintainable, and scalable systems.
• System Software Coordination: Coordinate, integrate, and debug automation framework for system software comprising different domains within server architecture (such as SoC FWs, BIOS, BMC, Rack Manager, etc.) and network connection interfaces (Serial, SSH, TCP, Telnet).
• Project Planning: Plan project roadmaps for new features spanning several months and break them down into actionable tasks and deadlines.
• Toolchain & Packaging: Experience with modern Python packaging tools (e.g., Poetry, uv). Knowledge of semantic versioning, lock files, and dependency pinning for reproducible builds, virtual environments and multi-version compatibility strategies.
• Debugging and Troubleshooting: Exhibit debugging and troubleshooting skills to ensure systematic closure of issues for subsequent releases. Create documentation for system design.
• Collaboration: Collaborate deeply with architects, firmware, program management, and component development teams for day-to-day operations and long-term roadmap improvements by feeding back key learnings.
• Innovation: Be passionate about exploring and deploying novel methods to improve unit/integration test coverage, release/test automation pipelines, and the efficiency of our firmware releases.

Required Qualifications:

• Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience.

Other Qualifications: 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:

• 12+ years of professional experience in automation framework design/development, integration, validation, or system level debuggingExperience of building large scale multi-org automation and validation framework.
• 12+ years of professional experience in automation framework design/development, integration, validation, or system level debugging
• Understanding of object-oriented programming and design patterns (creational, structural, behavioral).
• Ability to design modular, maintainable, and scalable systems.Demonstrated experience in automation framework (such as Robot Framework), system level Integration, validation (including validation infrastructure setup), and debugging of system software.
• Experience with Python, packaging tools (e.g., Poetry, uv). Experience in Powershell, YAML, C++, Rust, Git, Visual Studio
• Expertise in CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps preferred) for packaging and release automation.
• Experience with virtual environments and multi-version compatibility strategies.
• Experience in firmware validation on multiple HW test environments (Boards, FPGA, Emulation, Simulation etc.).
• Awareness of secure coding practices and compliance requirements during packaging and release.
• Understand the needs of customers and deliver to expectations, always seeking to provide positive customer experience take ownership of decisions, actions, and results, holding accountability for deliverables and commitments.

Firmware Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

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.