Principal Hardware Engineer

Microsoft • San Diego, CA

5d

About The Position

Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) develops and operates the infrastructure and foundational technologies supporting Microsoft’s online services 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 develops qualification and validation strategies, creates and improves test suites, translates industry and Microsoft requirements into test procedures, partners with suppliers, and drives quality improvements using fleet learnings. The engineer will help deliver reliable, secure storage and PCIe solutions that meet Azure requirements and prevent 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 working 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/Linux driver or kernel development or 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 find 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, ensuring they 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: Principal