Principal Firmware

Multiple Locations, India

Date posted

Sep 18, 2025

Job number

Work site

3 days / week in-office

Travel

0-25%

Role type

Individual Contributor

Profession

Software Engineering

Discipline

Firmware Engineering

Employment type

Full-Time

If you are passionate about working on cutting edge new technology and looking to build a team ground up, with cultural values that put collaboration, growth mindset and people first, then this is the role for you.

The Azure Firmware Center of Excellence team is instrumental in defining and delivering operational success for Azure that exceeds our customer's expectations. Our technology and innovations are globally available foundation of Azure Control plane that hosts services with the scale of Azure Compute / Bing / Skype / Azure Store / SQL, host millions of multiplayer gaming sessions and large-scale computational solutions.

Our teams are responsible for Firmware development of server, silicon and rack infrastructure design with a focus on innovation for Azure infrastructure for Microsoft and their customers.

If you are a seasoned engineering Leader with passion for building highly reliable, scalable distributed systems; If you want hands-on services architecture experience and like to produce impact across a large number of systems; if you have a penchant to learn and utilize your broad skill set to produce great customer impact; then this opportunity is for you - Join the Azure Firmware Center of Excellence and help us envision and build technical solutions to power Azure.

This is expected to be a hands on role, where you will have the opportunity to build and lead your team of extremely talented engineers to deliver innovation at scale and own delivery of product to Azure datacenters.

You must have proficient C programing skills, with experience with SoC Architecture and Design, writing low level drivers, root causing issues at the intersection of multiple subsystems across firmware and hardware.

• 15+ years of experience in large-scale embedded software development.
• Proven hands-on expertise in C programming and low-level driver development.
• Deep understanding of SoC architecture and platform server design.
• Experience with CPU architectures (Intel/AMD/ARM) across multi-socket configurations (2/4/8/16).
• Strong background in UEFI platform development and secure boot technologies.
• Familiarity with hardware interfaces: PCIe, NVMe, SSD/SAS, BMC, TPM, I2C, SPI, USB, UARTs.
• Experience with bare-metal firmware for peripherals like GPU, CPLD, TPM.
• MS in Computer Science/Engineering or equivalent experience.
• Bonus: AI/ML hardware experience (TPU, Nitro, Smart NICs), Rust/C++ proficiency.

Are you passionate about working on cutting edge new technology in Control Plane Platform management with a team that embodies the growth mindset? Are you hoping to join an organization which is built on a mission "To empower every person and organization on this planet to achieve more"? Then this is the role for you. The Azure Cloud Hardware Infrastructure division (SCHIE) is responsible for Firmware design and development of Server and Rack Infrastructure Firmware for Microsoft Online Services.

This position is open Across multiple locations - Hyderabad/Bangalore/Noida

• Architect, design, and develop innovative firmware and cloud firmware features that drive competitive advantage and scale.
• Lead technical execution across all phases of product development—from microarchitecture to firmware deployment.
• Collaborate with high-performing engineers to build robust firmware solutions for Azure datacenters.
• Drive engineering design plans, trade-offs, and schedules to ensure timely, high-quality delivery.
• Root cause complex issues across firmware and hardware subsystems.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

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Industry leading healthcare

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Educational resources

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Discounts on products and services

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Savings and investments

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Maternity and paternity leave

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Generous time away

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Giving programs

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Opportunities to network and connect

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.