FAE - Principal Field Applications Engineer (Customer Facing/Design-Win Focused)

Microchip Technology Inc.•Austin, TX

2d•Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a Principal-level Field Applications Engineer with a rare combination of deep embedded design expertise and extensive customer-facing experience. This role is ideal for someone who has spent 10+ years working directly with customers in a technical capacity—whether in sales engineering, field applications engineering, customer solutions, or technical consulting—and who thrives on owning an embedded solution from first customer conversation through production and long-term support. This is not a pure development role and not a pure sales role. You will act as a technical lead, architect, and trusted advisor, helping customers define requirements, win internal buy-in, and successfully deliver production-grade embedded software.

Requirements

10+ years in a customer-facing technical role, such as: Field Applications Engineer, Sales Engineer, Customer Solutions Engineer, Embedded Systems Consultant
Proven ability to: Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences, Build credibility and trust with customer engineering teams, Balance multiple customer engagements simultaneously
10+ years of hands-on embedded system design experience
Strong experience with: Embedded C/C++, Microcontrollers and system architecture, RTOS-based firmware development, Serial interfaces (I2C, SPI, UART, USB etc.), Firmware update and bootloader design, Git-based workflows
Hardware design experience including: Schematic capture, Component selection, Board bring-up and debugging
Proficiency with lab tools (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, debuggers)
Comfortable operating in ambiguity and defining solutions from incomplete requirements
Strong sense of ownership and accountability
Self-directed, proactive, and comfortable working with minimal supervision
Enjoys both technical depth and customer interaction
Able to prioritize across multiple opportunities while maintaining technical excellence
Able to act as a team leader with help drive large designs from

Nice To Haves

CI/CD for embedded firmware
Experience with embedded Linux
Secure boot and secure firmware update
Networking (wired or wireless)
Python for automation or tooling
Experience supporting products through volume production

Responsibilities

Act as a primary technical interface to customers, owning relationships from initial engagement through product launch
Proactively identify new opportunities for design wins by understanding customer roadmaps, pain points, and business drivers
Translate customer requirements into complete embedded system architectures
Present and iterate on technical solutions with customer engineering and management teams
Partner closely with sales to drive design wins to revenue, while independently leading the technical strategy
Architect end‑to‑end embedded solutions, including hardware, firmware, and supporting tools
Design production‑level hardware (schematic design, component selection, design for manufacturability)
Develop production-level embedded firmware applications in C/C++ for microcontroller-based systems
Implement RTOS-based designs, bootloaders, firmware update mechanisms, and peripheral drivers
Adapt and extend reference designs to meet customer-specific requirements
Own the technical success of customer projects through: System bring-up and debugging, Root-cause analysis of hardware and firmware issues, Bug fixes and feature enhancements throughout the product lifecycle
Support customers post-design-win with: Production readiness, Sustaining engineering, Feature expansion and roadmap alignment

Benefits

Technology that powers the world
17,000-member team
Atmosphere of trust, empowerment, respect, diversity, and communication
Opportunity to own a piece of a multi-billion dollar global organization
Culture supports growth and stability
Challenged and driven by an incredible array of products and solutions with unlimited career potential
Nationally-recognized Leadership Passage Programs
Commitment to employee development
Values-based decision making
Strong sense of community
Countless awards for diversity and workplace excellence
Company culture highlights how important every employee is to our mission