Principal Hardware Engineer

Microsoft • Washington, DC

5d • $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 Azure Memory & Storage (AMS) Commodity Quality and Validation Engineering (CQVE) team ensures storage-device quality, reliability, and compliance before deployment at Azure scale.

The Principal Hardware Engineer will lead the Certified Device List (CDL) qualification program for hard disk drives (HDDs), solid state drives (SSDs), and PCIe switches. The role drives qualification and validation strategy, develops and improves test suites, translates industry and Microsoft requirements into comprehensive procedures, partners with suppliers, and uses fleet learnings to improve quality. The engineer helps deliver reliable, secure storage and PCIe solutions that meet Azure performance, compatibility, and reliability requirements while preventing validation escapes and fleet-impacting issues.

Requirements

• Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field and 7+ years of technical engineering experience; or bachelor's degree in one of these fields and 8+ years of technical engineering 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

• 8+ years of experience with enterprise storage technologies, including HDDs, SSDs, SAS, SATA, PCIe, or NVMe devices, with expertise in storage architecture, performance, reliability, and failure analysis.
• 5+ years of experience leading development of validation strategies, qualification programs, test methodologies, or automated test frameworks for hardware products.
• Experience leading cross-functional technical initiatives and influencing product quality, validation requirements, or engineering roadmaps across suppliers, partners, and internal engineering organizations.
• Hands-on experience working with server platforms and storage subsystems.
• Understanding of SSD, HDD, and PCIe architecture, storage fault modes, error handling, and recovery mechanisms.
• Familiarity with industry-standard PCIe and PCIe Switch architecture, protocols, topology, and error handling.
• Hands-on experience debugging and analyzing PCIe/PCIe Switch errors and interoperability issues.
• Windows or Linux driver or kernel development/debugging experience using C/C++.
• Exposure to SSD firmware development, firmware validation, and firmware/host interaction.

Responsibilities

• Translate Microsoft, OCP, security, reliability, and platform requirements into HDD, SSD, and PCIe Switch validation strategies, test plans, and qualification procedures.
• Design, develop, automate, and maintain CDL test suites covering functionality, performance, reliability, error handling, recovery, power, security, interoperability, and fleet-specific scenarios.
• Analyze fleet learnings, field incidents, and validation escapes to identify coverage gaps, reproduce failures in the lab, and improve validation methods and test coverage.
• Partner with HDD, SSD, and PCIe Switch suppliers to review qualification results, debug failures, drive root-cause analysis and corrective actions, and ensure compliance with Microsoft quality and certification requirements.
• Validate storage and PCIe solutions at component, subsystem, and platform levels, including firmware, driver, hardware, and system interactions.
• Lead cross-functional technical discussions with storage architecture, platform, firmware, driver, reliability, and datacenter engineering teams to resolve complex storage and PCIe issues.
• Drive qualification readiness for next-generation HDD, SSD, NVMe, and PCIe Switch technologies to meet Azure reliability, performance, security, compatibility, and serviceability requirements.
• Influence validation standards and supplier methodologies, mentor engineers, and provide technical leadership in storage and PCIe validation.

What This Job Offers

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