Principal Sourcing Engineer - AI Scale Up & Switch

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

About The Position

Microsoft’s Cloud business is expanding, and the Cloud Supply Chain (CSCP) organization is responsible for enabling the hardware infrastructure underlying this growth including AI! CSCP’s vision is to empower customers to achieve more by delivering Cloud and AI capabilities at scale. Our mission is to deliver the world's computer with an industry-leading supply chain. The CSCP organization is responsible for traditional supply chain functions such as plan, source, make, deliver, but also manages supportability (spares), sustainability, and decommissioning of datacenter assets worldwide. We deliver the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, OneDrive and the Microsoft Azure platform for external customers. Our infrastructure is supported by more than 300 datacenters around the world that enable services for more than 1 billion customers in over 90 countries. The Cloud Sourcing, Spares, Security and Sustainability (CS4) organization within CSCP manages sourcing, strategy, and suppliers to provide cost, flexibility, and supply advantages that enable our org to become a world-class supply chain. Well-defined and executed sourcing and supply chain management ensures reliable, on-time performance and optimized cost, prevents urgent and unplanned investments, and provides accurate and timely information across the supply base and internally across the infrastructure organization. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide. Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Requirements

Master's degree in Business, Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Materials Science, or related field AND 6+ years experience in procurement, supply chain, sourcing, engineering, operations, or relevant sales-related roles OR Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Materials Science, or related field AND 8+ years experience in procurement, supply chain, sourcing, engineering, operations, or relevant sales-related roles OR equivalent experience.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: 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

10+ years of experience in high-speed networking, interconnects, or AI/HPC infrastructure, including hands-on exposure to switch silicon or system-level fabrics.
Deep understanding of optical and electrical interconnects, including high-speed SerDes, co-packaged optics, pluggable transceivers, and advanced cabling.
Deep understanding of AI cluster architectures, including scale-up vs scale-out trade-offs, topology design, and performance bottlenecks.
Proven experience working directly with silicon vendors, OEMs/ODMs, or component suppliers in a technical sourcing or engineering role.
Ability to influence without authority and drive alignment across highly matrixed organizations.

Responsibilities

Act as a technical trusted advisor for AI scale-up and scale-out interconnect technologies, including high-speed Ethernet/ESUN, NVLink/NVSwitch-class fabrics, and emerging AI-optimized switching architectures.
Partner with Azure engineering and and system architecture teams to translate AI workload requirements (latency, bandwidth, topology, power, reliability) into sourcing and supplier strategies.
Evaluate next-generation technologies across switch silicon, optical/electrical interconnects, cables, transceivers, and system-level fabrics to inform Azure roadmaps.
Lead deep technical engagements with strategic suppliers (switch silicon vendors, system OEMs/ODMs, optics providers, and emerging startups).
Drive supplier technical alignment with Azure requirements, including performance targets, feature roadmaps, power efficiency, manufacturability, and long-term scalability.
Influence supplier roadmaps through early-stage co-development, design reviews, and proof-of-concept evaluations.
Define sourcing strategies that balance performance, cost, capacity, resilience, and time-to-market.
Identify and mitigate technology and supply risks, including single-source dependencies, yield constraints and ecosystem bottlenecks.
Support make-vs-buy decisions and multi-vendor strategies for critical AI interconnect components.
Serve as a bridge between engineering, operations, supply chain, finance, and executive stakeholders, providing clear technical guidance and trade-off analysis.
Lead due diligence for new suppliers, acquisitions, or strategic partnerships related to AI networking and scale-up fabrics.
Drive end-to-end execution from technology evaluation → supplier selection → qualification → volume deployment.
Contribute to long-term Azure AI infrastructure strategy through data-driven recommendations and executive-level communications.