Principal Firmware Debug & Dev Engineer
Principal engineer in Microsoft's cloud server firmware team (SCHIE Firmware CoE), leading root-cause investigations spanning firmware, silicon, boards, OS, and fleet infrastructure, and shaping firmware architecture for diagnosability, security, and reliability of Azure hardware. Core stack: C/C++ firmware, Python/KQL-SQL telemetry analysis.
- Compensation
- $142.8K–$274.8K / yr
- Location
- United States, Oregon, Hillsboro
- Work setup
- Onsite
- Seniority
- Principal
- Employment
- Full time
- Experience
- 3+ years
- Category
- Embedded
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Doctorate in EE/CE/CS or related field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience, OR Master's AND 6+ years, OR Bachelor's AND 8+ years, OR equivalent experience
- Ability to pass Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire and every two years
- Eligibility to access export-controlled information (proof of citizenship or US residency/protected status)
Nice to have
- 12+ years of technical engineering experience (or degree-matched 5-10+ years)
- System/Silicon debug, firmware development in C or C++, validation via scripting for automation
- Leading cross-functional silicon/system investigations from Power-on/Bring-up into deployed products
- Defining firmware/software diagnostics or observability; using telemetry/automated analysis to resolve complex failures
- SoC architecture, platform initialization, memory subsystems, PCIe or other low-level interfaces, OS/RTOS concepts
- Firmware security, error reporting, crash capture, recovery, and reliability mechanisms
- Silicon/platform bring-up, lab debugging, deployment of reusable diagnostics or regression coverage
- Applying Python, KQL/SQL, statistical methods, or AI-assisted diagnostics to fleet failure analysis
- Influencing cross-product priorities, mentoring technical leaders, turning findings into design improvements
Full description
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.
QualificationsRequired 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.