Join Microsoft's Silicon and Cloud Hardware Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) team, driving the innovation behind Microsoft's expanding cloud infrastructure. We power critical online businesses like Bing, Office 365, and the Azure platform with our robust server and data center infrastructure. As part of the Firmware Center of Excellence, you'll shape the future of Hardware/Firmware for Azure infrastructure, focusing on next-generation server, silicon, and rack systems. Your work will directly contribute to securing Azure infrastructure through advanced firmware technology, collaborating closely with AI and Azure-Core teams on cutting-edge Cobalt and Maia systems.

This role offers a unique opportunity to work with a growth mindset on technologies at the forefront of cloud and AI. If you are driven by the mission "To empower every person and organization on this planet to achieve more" and seek to impact global-scale systems, we encourage you to apply.

As a Principal Firmware Architect, you will define the architectural vision and strategic direction for backend firmware systems supporting AI accelerators like MAIA, ensuring scalability, performance, and security. You will be instrumental in creating firmware architectures for critical systems, ensuring seamless integration with hardware. This involves contributing to the design of firmware components, including driver interfaces and system libraries for SoC bring-up, alongside developing low-level hardware features.

You will also mentor firmware engineers, provide technical oversight across subsystems, and act as the key liaison between hardware/software architects and development teams. Furthermore, you'll evaluate emerging technologies, propose innovative solutions, lead complex system-level debugging, and own the entire firmware development lifecycle from concept to productization, guaranteeing the delivery of high-quality, production-ready code.

We are seeking a Principal Firmware Architect with extensive experience in firmware architecture and embedded systems development. A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a related field is required, along with 14+ years of professional experience in firmware or embedded software development, emphasizing multicore systems and scalable architectures.

Key technical requirements include 4+ years of hands-on experience with High-Speed Ethernet Controller Firmware/Software, deep expertise in Ethernet MAC, Network Transport Layer protocols, traffic management, and QoS. A strong grasp of Layer 2/3 networking, network processors, optical networking, CMIS, and SFF standards (SFP, QSFP) is essential. Proven success in leading complex SoC bring-up efforts and delivering production-grade firmware is also critical. Proficiency in C/C++/Rust for designing and optimizing low-level firmware components is a must.

Preferred qualifications include a solid understanding of computer architecture, CPU execution modes, memory coherency, protection mechanisms, interrupt controllers, and virtualization. Experience with secure bootloaders, platform initialization, and board support packages is highly beneficial. Meeting Microsoft, customer, or government security screening requirements, including the Microsoft Cloud Background Check, is mandatory.