Principal Firmware Debug & Dev Engineer

Microsoft • Hillsboro, OR

21h

About The Position

Microsoft’s Silicon and Cloud Hardware Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) organization builds the infrastructure and foundational technologies supporting Microsoft’s cloud services. The Firmware Center of Excellence develops firmware for Microsoft Cloud servers and racks, including next-generation server, silicon, and rack infrastructure, with a focus on firmware innovation and securing Azure infrastructure.

The Principal Firmware Debug & Dev Engineer drives product quality from hardware bring-up through deployment. The role leads complex investigations across firmware, silicon, boards, operating systems, drivers, and fleet infrastructure; guides improvements to firmware architecture and implementation; and establishes reusable methods for diagnostics, telemetry, failure analysis, and regression prevention. The engineer also applies AI- and data-science-assisted debugging, defines diagnostic readiness and knowledge-transfer expectations, influences priorities across teams, and mentors engineers while remaining hands-on with difficult technical problems.

Requirements

• Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field and at least 3 years of technical engineering experience; or a master’s degree in one of these fields and at least 6 years of experience; or a bachelor’s degree in one of these fields and at least 8 years of experience; or equivalent experience.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.
• Ability to satisfy export-control access eligibility verification requirements, including providing proof of citizenship, U.S. residency, or other protected status; citizenship is verified with a valid passport, with other applicable documents accepted for lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees.
• Experience with system or silicon debugging, firmware development in C or C++, and validation using scripting for engineering automation.
• Experience leading cross-functional silicon or system investigations and delivering firmware or debugging capabilities from power-on or bring-up into deployed products.
• Experience defining firmware or 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 or platform bring-up, lab debugging, and deployment of reusable diagnostics or regression coverage.

Nice To Haves

• At least 12 years of technical engineering experience; or a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field and at least 10 years of experience; or a master’s degree in one of these fields and at least 7 years of experience; or a doctorate in one of these fields and at least 5 years of experience.
• Experience applying Python, KQL/SQL, or equivalent analysis tools, statistical methods, or AI-assisted diagnostics to fleet failure analysis, including evaluation of evidence quality and false positives.
• Experience influencing cross-product engineering priorities, mentoring technical leaders, and translating investigation findings into firmware or platform design improvements.

Responsibilities

• Drive product quality from bring-up to deployment in partnership with cross-organizational teams.
• Lead critical, ambiguous investigations spanning firmware, silicon, boards, operating systems, drivers, and fleet infrastructure; establish evidence-based root cause and corrective actions.
• 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 AI- and data-science-assisted debugging methods, evaluating 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.

Benefits

• Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation; additional benefits and pay information is available through Microsoft’s careers website.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal