Sr. Firmware Engineer

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

1d • $119,800 - $234,700

About The Position

Microsoft Silicon, Cloud, Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) builds and operates infrastructure and foundational technologies supporting Microsoft’s online services and Azure. The Host Services team helps define and deliver operational measures of success for hardware manufacturing, improving planning, quality, delivery, scale, and sustainability for Microsoft cloud hardware.

The Sr. Firmware Engineer develops and maintains firmware and driver solutions for Microsoft custom silicon platforms, including MAIA AI accelerators and COBALT general-purpose compute platforms deployed across Azure. The role contributes throughout the product lifecycle, from architecture and design through silicon bring-up, validation, manufacturing, and productization. It designs firmware components and supports hardware-software integration to enable and deploy platform capabilities across Azure infrastructure, working closely with silicon, board electrical, hardware, operating system, and software platform teams.

The position requires a Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter. The role is open for a minimum of five days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until filled. The listed typical U.S. base salary range is $119,800–$234,700 per year, with a range of $160,200–$261,000 for specified San Francisco Bay Area and New York City metropolitan area locations. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.

Requirements

• Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field and at least 1 year of technical engineering experience; or a master's degree in one of those fields and at least 4 years of technical engineering experience; or a bachelor's degree in one of those fields and at least 5 years of technical engineering experience; or equivalent experience.
• At least 5 years of professional experience designing and developing firmware solutions.
• At least 5 years of proven experience in C, C++, and Rust, with a track record of delivering production-quality software.
• At least 5 years of experience with two or more industry-standard interfaces and protocols, including PCIe, I2C, SPI, USB, and UART.
• 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

• Experience with UEFI and ARM Trusted Firmware (ARM-TF).
• Proven experience using AI-assisted and agentic development tools to accelerate issue triage, debugging, root-cause analysis, and feature development.
• Problem-solving, debugging, and troubleshooting skills, including experience diagnosing and resolving complex hardware-software integration issues.
• Effective collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to work across silicon, hardware, operating system, and platform software teams.
• Familiarity with ARM64 SoCs and Armv8 architecture, including boot flows, trusted firmware, and system initialization.
• Familiarity with AI-driven software engineering practices that improve developer productivity and software quality.
• Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field and at least 3 years of technical engineering experience with coding; or a master's degree in one of those fields and at least 6 years of technical engineering experience with coding; or a bachelor's degree in one of those fields and at least 8 years of technical engineering experience with coding; or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain firmware and driver solutions for Microsoft custom silicon platforms, including MAIA AI accelerators and COBALT general-purpose compute platforms deployed across Azure.
• Contribute to all phases of the product lifecycle, from architecture and design through silicon bring-up, validation, manufacturing, and productization.
• Design and develop firmware components, including driver interfaces, system libraries for SoC bring-up, low-level hardware protocols, and platform features.
• Participate in firmware architecture and technical design reviews, ensuring scalable, reliable, and high-performance solutions for Microsoft custom silicon platforms.
• Drive hardware-software integration to enable new silicon capabilities and accelerate feature deployment across Azure infrastructure.
• Collaborate with silicon, board electrical, and hardware engineering teams to design, enable, and deliver new platform capabilities for Azure infrastructure.
• Partner with operating system and software platform teams to integrate and deploy new technologies and features across the Azure fleet.

What This Job Offers

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