Senior Principal Product Development - Hardware

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

9d

About The Position

Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team behind Microsoft’s expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” mission. SCHIE delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Teams, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform globally with our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for engineers to help achieve that mission.
This executive leader will be responsible for driving operational excellence, innovation, and scalable processes across our hardware development and sustainment ecosystem. As a senior technical leader, this role will partner closely with the CVP to define, mature, and institutionalize the processes that enable Microsoft to design, deliver, and sustain world‑class hardware platforms at cloud scale.
This leader will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of hardware engineering within the organization—bringing deep technical insight, systems‑level thinking, and strong operational discipline to ensure our hardware strategy, development workflows, and lifecycle processes are robust, repeatable, and data‑driven. Their expertise will directly influence the quality, reliability, velocity, and long‑term sustainability of Microsoft’s hardware roadmap, particularly as we scale to meet the demands of AI infrastructure.
We are seeking a candidate with extensive experience leading complex hardware programs and transforming engineering organizations through clarity of process, technical depth, and a data‑centric approach to continuous improvement. This individual will collaborate cross‑functionally to ensure precise definition of system requirements, drive alignment across engineering teams, and use telemetry, analytics, and structured methodologies to mature engineering workflows across the product lifecycle.
In addition to technical leadership, the ideal candidate will have a proven track record of building, developing, and inspiring high‑performing teams. They will serve as a senior leader who attracts top‑tier talent, fosters an environment of engineering excellence, and strengthens Microsoft’s position as a destination for world‑class hardware engineers.

Requirements

• Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 9+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 11+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role.
• 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

• BS / MS in Electrical/Computer Engineering or equivalent industry experience.
• 15+ years of relevant experience in system (compute, storage, networking, and/or accelerator) level design and/or implementation across the hardware development lifecycle.
• 10+ years of experience in end-to-end cloud hardware system development and manufacturing across all stages of development and at large scale deployment.
• Experience leading engineering teams.
• Proven experience with large scale, end-to-end cloud system hardware manufacturing.
• Experience leading systems validation strategies and debugging complex hardware technologies for product development.
• HW architecture and design principles around Server design lifecycle & tools
• Knowledge of high-volume silicon (SoCs, GPUs, or FPGAs), compute, storage, and/or networking design, manufacturing, and deployment.
• Experience with verification of highspeed interfaces such as PCIe, DDR, and ethernet.
• Understanding of datacenters and large-scale operations.
• Experience managing hardware programs through the entire product lifecycle.
• Demonstrates executive-level communication and presentation skills in both verbal and written forms.
• Experience with hardware, firmware, management firmware, and/or software (system & application stack) interfaces across all modules in a system.
• Ability to work under tight deadlines and manage complexity while driving clarity.
• Proven effectiveness driving complex multi-stakeholder processes, orchestrating across teams.

Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership & Strategy Lead the definition and evolution of scalable, repeatable processes across hardware development and sustainment. Provide strategic technical direction that strengthens engineering rigor, accelerates execution, and ensures operational excellence at cloud scale. Serve as the catalyst who translates strategy into actionable, governed execution—turning vision into reality for the organization.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration Partner closely with development teams across Microsoft, ODM partners, and platform engineering groups to ensure system requirements are clearly defined, aligned, and executed with precision throughout the product lifecycle. Act as a trusted collaborator who enables alignment across diverse technical and organizational boundaries.
• Process & Engineering Innovation Drive continuous improvements in hardware development workflows using data, telemetry, and modern engineering methodologies. Champion new approaches that enhance reliability, velocity, and quality of complex hardware platforms, ensuring innovations move from concept to adopted practice across teams.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Alignment Influence and communicate effectively with senior Microsoft and supplier leaders to ensure alignment on scalable architectures, engineering best practices, and long‑term platform strategy. Act as a key sounding board to the CVP—helping refine, pressure‑test, and operationalize major scaling initiatives.
• Operational Excellence & Data‑Driven Execution Establish and uphold the highest standards for quality, sustainability, and resilience across hardware development. Leverage analytics, insights, and engineering data to optimize processes, reduce variability, and enable predictable, high-confidence execution. Operate as a strong executor who can convert ideas into durable, org‑wide outcomes.

What This Job Offers

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