Principal Hardware Engineer - PCB

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

3h

About The Position

Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team behind Microsoft’s expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” mission. SCHIE delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Teams, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform globally with our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for passionate engineers to help achieve that mission.
As Microsoft's cloud business continues to grow the ability to deploy new offerings and hardware infrastructure on time, in high volume with high quality and lowest cost is of paramount importance. To achieve this goal, the Cloud Hardware Systems Engineering (CHSE) team is instrumental in defining and delivering operational measures of success for hardware manufacturing, improving the planning process, quality, delivery, scale and sustainability related to Microsoft cloud hardware. We are looking for seasoned engineers with a dedicated passion for customer focused solutions, insight and industry knowledge to envision and implement future technical solutions that will manage and optimize the Cloud infrastructure.
We are looking for a Principal Hardware Engineer - PCB to join the team, with technically grounded and visionary PCB End-to-End Expert to lead advanced PCB technology development and productization for next-generation AI and cloud hardware platforms. This role spans the entire lifecycle - from PCB material selection and stack-up planning to high-layer-count PCB manufacturing, quality assurance, and reliability testing, etc. The ideal candidate will define technology roadmaps, drive vendor engagements, and ensure robust design practices for performance, cost, and manufacturability.

Requirements

• Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role.
• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Nice To Haves

• Leadership experience in PCB design and fabrication for datacenter or enterprise level products development and projects execution
• 10+ years of relevant experience in designing and deploying advanced PCB technologies and materials across the hardware development lifecycle in high volume
• 10+ years of experience working across multiple disciplines (electrical, mechanical, thermal, manufacturing, system/rack integration, and/or data center infrastructure) to identify risks, drive discussions, detail system tradeoffs, and assess impact
• Experience with driving execution of PCB validation and manufacturing test plans
• Deep understanding of advanced PCB technologies (HDI, via-in-pad, ultra-high layer count, asymmetric stack-up)
• Detailed knowledge and hands-on experience of low-loss materials (M6-M9), copper foil technologies, and bonding agents
• Familiarity with AI infrastructure, hyperscale systems, or data center hardware
• Experience with PCIe Gen6/Gen7 and/or 112G/224G PAM4 signaling and associated SI/PI challenges
• Exposure to reliability testing (HALT/HASS), failure analysis, and quality control systems
• Understanding of PCB-related failure mechanisms including CAM/CAF, via cracking, solder ball stress, and delamination
• Experience debugging PCB bare board and PCBA board-level issues for Cloud Servers
• Proficiency in PCB design tools (Cadence Allegro, Mentor Graphics) and simulation tools (HFSS, SI Wave).
• Proven track record in roadmap ownership, vendor management, and cross-functional collaboration
• Proficient verbal and written communication and presentation skills

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain PCB technology and advanced material roadmap, align with evolving silicon-level requirements and system-level targets.
• Develop PCB design guidelines and best practices, to balance innovation with manufacturability, cost, and reliability to deliver robust, scalable solutions.
• Specify SI/PI, electrical, and mechanical requirements for advanced PCB solutions, closely collaborating with these functional teams to ensure design implementation.
• Drive cross-organizational collaboration to guarantee co-design alignment, e.g. system architect, system technical lead, program management, supply chain, manufacturing engineering, reliability, etc.
• Evaluate and select material suppliers and PCB fabricators based on performance, cost, and quality metrics, drive technical alignment and qualification with vendors.
• Define high-volume PCB manufacturing processes and quality control standards, ensure compliance with reliability standards and environmental requirements.
• Drive pathfinding experiments with PCB fabricators to accelerate technology adoption, while addressing manufacturability and reliability requirements.
• Drive or support root cause analysis with corrective actions, and continuous improvement for field and production issues.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees