Principal Firmware Debug & Dev Engineer

Overview

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 globally with our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions.

We in SCHIE’s Firmware Center of Excellence create the foundational firmware that powers the Microsoft Cloud. Our firmware lights up millions of servers and racks across the globe, enabling users to do everything from running blogs to crunching through powerful AI algorithms. We’re a growing team of diverse, talented & passionate engineers inventing and delivering technology to light up the “world’s computer!” We are working on the next generation hardware/firmware for server, silicon and rack infrastructure with a focus on innovation in firmware technology to secure Azure infrastructure for Microsoft and their customers.

We believe that a robust firmware infrastructure leads to incredibly powerful computing experiences—if you believe this too, we need you! We are seeking a Principal Firmware Debug & Dev Engineer.

#azurehwjobs #SCHIE

Responsibilities

• Drives product quality from bring-up to deployment partnering with cross organizational teams.
• Lead critical, ambiguous investigations spanning firmware, silicon, boards, OS, drivers, and fleet infrastructure; drive evidence-based root cause and corrective action.
• Guide firmware architecture and implementation decisions that improve error reporting, crash capture, recovery, diagnosability, and reliability.
• Establish reusable approaches for telemetry quality, failure classification, fleet-scale correlation, reproducibility, and regression prevention.
• Lead with AI data-science-assisted debug methods, with evaluation of accuracy, false positives, engineering usefulness, and data-handling controls.
• Define diagnostic readiness and knowledge-transfer expectations with component teams before deployment and broader fleet adoption.
• Influence cross-team priorities and mentor engineers while remaining directly engaged in difficult technical problems.

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.

This role will require access to information that is controlled for export under export control regulations, potentially under the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations or Export Administration Regulations, the EU Dual Use Regulation, and/or other export control regulations. As a condition of employment, the successful candidate will be required to provide either proof of their country of citizenship or proof of their US. residency or other protected status (e.g., under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)) for assessment of eligibility to access the export-controlled information.

To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate’s citizenship will be verified with a valid passport. Lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees may verify status using other documents, where applicable.

Preferred Qualifications

12+ years of technical engineering experience

OR Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 10+ years of technical engineering experience

OR Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years of technical engineering experience

OR Doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 5+ years of technical engineering experience.

Experience System/Silicon debug, firmware development in C or C++ and validation using scripting for engineering automation.

Experience leading cross-functional silicon/system investigations and delivering firmware or debug from Power-on/Bring-up into deployed products.

Experience defining firmware/software diagnostics or observability and using telemetry or automated analysis to resolve complex system failures.

Experience with SoC architecture, platform initialization, memory subsystems, PCIe or other low-level interfaces, and OS/RTOS concepts such as scheduling, interrupts, and concurrency.

Experience with firmware security, error reporting, crash capture, recovery, and reliability mechanisms.

Experience with silicon/platform bring-up, lab debugging, and deployment of reusable diagnostics or regression coverage.

Experience applying Python, KQL/SQL or equivalent analysis tools, statistical methods, or AI-assisted diagnostics to fleet failure analysis, with evaluation of evidence quality and false positives.

Experience influencing cross-product engineering priorities, mentoring technical leaders, and turning investigation findings into firmware or platform design improvements.

Firmware Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $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.

Insights from previous hires

Top skills: Architecture, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Business, Capacity Planning, Budgeting, Apache, Analytics, Acceptance Testing, Construction, Computer Science

Common previous titles: Principal Firmware Engineer, Principal Firmware Debug and Dev Engineer, Principal Firmware Debug Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Electrical Engineer, Cloud Solution Architect, Technical Program Manager, Senior Finance Manager, Senior Technical Program Manager, Senior Principal Architect