Principal Firmware Engineer
Do you want to be at the forefront of innovating the latest hardware designs to propel Microsoft’s cloud growth? Are you seeking a unique career opportunity that combines technical capabilities, cross-team collaboration with business insight and strategy?
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees, we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to achieve our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond. In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.
Join the Strategic Planning and Architecture (SPARC) team within Microsoft’s Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure (AHSI) organization, the team behind Microsoft’s expanding Cloud Infrastructure and for powering Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” mission. Microsoft delivers more than 200 online services to more than one billion individuals worldwide, and AHSI is the team behind our expanding cloud infrastructure. We deliver the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's cloud businesses including Microsoft Azure, Bing, MSN, Office 365, OneDrive, Skype, Teams and Xbox Live.
The SPARC organization manages Azure’s hardware roadmap from architecture concept through production for all of Microsoft’s current and future on-line services.
We are looking for a **Principal Firmware Engineer** to join our team!
**Responsibilities**
+ Involved in all phases of product development, ensuring seamless integration from concept to deployment
+ Participate in silicon design, collaborating closely with hardware teams to define firmware requirements
+ Drive firmware architecture and design, setting foundational patterns and best practices for the development team
+ Support manufacturing efforts, enabling smooth bring-up and validation of hardware platforms
+ Lead productization, ensuring the firmware is robust, reliable, and ready for mass production
+ Lead driver and firmware architecture/design for accelerator chips, focusing on performance, scalability, and maintainability
+ Contribute to firmware development at all levels of the stack, from low-level hardware interaction to driver integration
+ Design and implement driver interfaces, enabling communication between hardware and higher-level software components
+ Develop power-on and initialization routines for silicon bring-up and early boot scenarios
+ Implement and optimize protocols and feature support for low-level hardware capabilities
**Qualifications**
**Required/minimum qualifications**
+ Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
+ 5+ years of experience designing Windows/ Linux Driver/ OS development
+ 5+ years of experience withdeveloping PCIe, USB,DMA, IOMMU.
+ 5+ years of experience Linux and Windows Kernel debugging
**Other Requirements:**
+ 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**
+ Experienced with ROM, Bootloader, and embedded runtime development.
+ Experience in working in pre silicon environments.
+ Familiar with I3C, I2C, SPI, SPI-FLASH
+ Ability to debug and resolve issues spanning multiple subsystems.
+ Proven and demonstrable skill in Rust
+ Familiarity with standard Cryptography algorithms
+ Experienced with ROM, Bootloader, and embedded runtime development.
+ Experience in working in pre silicon environments.
+ Familiar with I3C, I2C, SPI, SPI-FLASH
+ Ability to debug and resolve issues spanning multiple subsystems.
Software 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
Microsoft will accept applications for the role until August 4th, 2025.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .