Senior Firmware Engineer

Microsoft•Redmond, WA

3d•$119,800 - $261,000

About The Position

Microsoft Silicon and Cloud Hardware Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) develops infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft’s online businesses and Azure platform. The Firmware Center of Excellence is responsible for hardware and firmware for Azure infrastructure, including next-generation server, silicon, and rack infrastructure. Its focus includes firmware innovation to secure Azure infrastructure for Microsoft and its customers. The Senior Firmware Engineer will use firmware architecture and design expertise to influence partners and drive end-to-end solutions from concept to production. The role involves platform and SoC architecture and design, SoC bring-up, and root-causing issues across firmware and hardware subsystems. The engineer will work with Microsoft product groups, industry partners, researchers, and cross-functional teams to develop reliable, serviceable, scalable, and cost-conscious server hardware and firmware solutions.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field and 4 or more years of technical engineering experience coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python, 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

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical discipline and 6 or more years of technical engineering experience coding in languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
6 or more years of professional experience architecting, designing, and developing firmware or software solutions.
Experience with Embedded Linux, U-Boot, and Board Support Packages (BSP) porting.
6 or more years of experience with platform initialization or low-level drivers for peripherals such as PCIe, I2C, eMMC, SPI, USB, or UARTs, or with memory management, scheduling, interrupts, or multithreading technologies.
In-depth knowledge of hardware and firmware interfaces and technologies, including OpenBMC, DMTF MCTP, Redfish, PLDM, SPDM, and RAS.
Ability to collaborate within and across teams.
Interest in coaching team members and supporting their growth.
Interest in new technological challenges and ability to deal with ambiguity.
Problem-solving, debugging, and troubleshooting skills, along with advanced design and development skills.
Self-motivated and able to work independently with minimal supervision.
Detailed knowledge of core networking protocols and REST API frameworks.

Responsibilities

Design and architect firmware solutions for cloud hardware systems, focusing on end-to-end system design, debugging, and troubleshooting.
Collaborate with hardware engineers, software developers, validation and integration teams, and product managers to define firmware requirements and specifications.
Develop and maintain firmware architecture for scalability, modularity, and maintainability.
Develop platform security threat models in collaboration with vendors and security teams.
Monitor industry trends and advancements in firmware technologies and recommend improvements.
Work with Microsoft product groups, industry partners, and researchers to architect and develop server hardware solutions that meet cloud-service platform requirements while minimizing total cost of ownership.
Design and implement firmware modules for hardware interfaces and protocols, including USB vNIC, SPI, I2C, I3C, and PCIe.
Provide technical leadership and guidance to internal developers and external partners to deliver serviceable, reliable, and scalable solutions.
Contribute to product vision and roadmap by bringing innovation to the server manageability ecosystem.
Perform system-level debugging and troubleshooting to identify and resolve hardware- and firmware-related issues.