Principal Firmware Engineer

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

21h•$142,800 - $274,800

About The Position

Microsoft’s Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) team develops infrastructure and foundational technologies that support Microsoft’s online services and Azure. The first-party silicon firmware team develops firmware for Microsoft Azure custom silicon, including Cobalt and MAIA, and builds shared firmware components, drivers, and infrastructure for secure platform bring-up and reliable operation. The Principal Firmware Engineer defines firmware architecture and requirements aligned with Azure features, service needs, and platform roadmaps. The role partners with silicon, board, platform integration, and firmware teams to shape secure, scalable, high-performance platform capabilities. It also contributes to shared firmware components and drivers, automated testing, continuous integration, DevOps workflows, Rust adoption, and AI-assisted development practices.

Requirements

Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field and 3+ years of technical engineering experience; or a master's degree in one of these fields and 6+ years of experience; or a bachelor's degree in one of these fields and 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 eligibility requirements for access to controlled information; citizenship or applicable U.S. residency or protected status must be verified as a condition of employment.
Strong coding experience in C, C++, Rust, or similar low-level programming languages used for firmware and embedded systems.
Demonstrated experience defining firmware architecture and requirements for complex hardware platforms.
Experience working with silicon design teams, board design teams, or other hardware engineering partners.
Experience translating product or cloud service requirements into firmware specifications and technical design decisions.
Experience writing, debugging, and reviewing code for boot firmware, embedded runtime, or platform initialization components.
Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences and influence cross-functional partners.

Nice To Haves

10+ years of experience in firmware, embedded systems, or hardware platform architecture.
Experience with Python or other scripting languages for automation, validation, and tooling.
Experience working in pre-silicon environments.
Experience with boot firmware, platform initialization, recovery, telemetry, security, and manageability features.
Experience with RTOS-based firmware development.
Familiarity with hardware interfaces and protocols such as PCIe, I3C, I2C, SPI, and USB.
Experience working with Azure service teams and aligning platform firmware to service requirements.
Strong understanding of hardware/software co-design and feature bring-up on custom silicon platforms.
Experience influencing architecture across multiple engineering teams and product groups.
Experience performing low-level debugging, performance analysis, and root-cause analysis in code spanning silicon and board boundaries.
Experience with firmware validation, platform debugging, and root-cause analysis across silicon and board boundaries.
Proven ability to operate in ambiguous environments and drive clear technical direction.

Responsibilities

Provide firmware requirements and architectural guidance to silicon design, board design, and platform integration teams.
Create firmware architecture and requirements aligned with Azure features, service needs, and platform roadmap priorities.
Define and maintain firmware subsystem interfaces, dependencies, and design principles for first-party silicon programs.
Partner with silicon architects, board engineers, and firmware developers to ensure requirements are feasible, testable, and complete.
Develop security requirements and threat models for firmware features, platform capabilities, and cross-domain interfaces.
Drive architecture reviews and technical decisions for boot, platform initialization, manageability, security, telemetry, and recovery capabilities.
Establish requirements for firmware supporting Azure custom silicon programs such as Cobalt and MAIA.
Collaborate across functions to ensure firmware designs support reliability, performance, security, and operational excellence at cloud scale.
Influence early product-cycle design tradeoffs to reduce integration risk and improve long-term firmware maintainability.
Support validation planning by defining expected firmware behavior, feature coverage, and acceptance criteria for platform bring-up and release readiness.
Diagnose complex architecture and integration issues across silicon, board, and firmware boundaries.
Design, implement, debug, and review shared firmware components and drivers, with attention to memory management.
Improve automated tests, continuous integration, DevOps workflows, and developer efficiency; contribute to Rust adoption and effective AI-assisted development practices.