Principal Hardware Engineer

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

13h • $142,800 - $304,200

About The Position

Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) delivers infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft’s online businesses and Azure platform. The Hardware, Infrastructure Management, and Fundamentals Engineering (HIFE) team supports the timely, high-volume, high-quality, and cost-effective deployment of cloud hardware. It focuses on hardware manufacturing operations, planning, quality, delivery, scale, and sustainability.

The Principal Hardware Engineer will provide technical leadership and hands-on debugging for data center hardware, particularly GPU subsystem failures. The role works with internal and external partners, data centers, development teams, and suppliers to resolve critical hardware and software/firmware issues; develop supplier quality strategies; oversee quality deliverables across new product introduction (NPI) builds; and drive product quality improvements from root cause analysis and quality metrics. The position also contributes to hardware change management and uses AI tooling or agentic approaches to scale debugging and data management.

Requirements

• Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, 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.

Nice To Haves

• Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field and 5+ years of technical engineering experience; or a master’s degree in one of these fields and 8+ years of experience; or a bachelor’s degree in one of these fields and 12+ years of experience; or equivalent experience.
• 12+ years of experience with modern server architectures, including GPU, GPU system hardware, memory, or CPU, and methods for failure analysis, debugging, or validation.
• 12+ years of proven success leading the resolution of critical quality issues across data centers.
• 8+ years of system-level server debugging with an understanding of power, systems, drivers, workloads, and network environments.
• 3+ years of direct GPU-related engineering experience in issue debugging or test-log review.
• A patent or a track record of engineering excellence.
• Experience with liquid cooling systems in data centers.
• Leadership skills and the ability to collaborate with diverse teams and drive a call to action.
• Ability to filter through applicable debugging data, such as telemetry and logs, to identify and investigate hardware failure signatures.
• Experience using AI tooling or agentic approaches to scale debugging and data management.

Responsibilities

• Perform hands-on debugging in data centers, both onsite and virtually.
• Provide technical leadership on complex quality solutions in collaboration with internal and external partners.
• Develop and implement a supplier quality management strategy to ensure data center hardware meets high quality standards.
• Work across data centers, development groups, and suppliers to resolve critical and high-severity hardware and software/firmware issues.
• Conduct hands-on debugging in global data centers, particularly GPU subsystem failure analysis.
• Use AI tooling and agentic approaches to scale debugging and data management.
• Drive continuous improvement based on root cause analysis and identified opportunities.
• Manage multiple NPI builds and manufacturing quality phase-gate deliverables throughout the engineering development lifecycle, from concept through production readiness.
• Establish Critical-to-Quality performance metrics to measure and improve product quality.
• Represent quality in the hardware change management process and ensure quality requirements are considered and met.

Benefits

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

What This Job Offers

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