Principal Firmware Architect

Microsoft Silicon and Cloud Hardware 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, Skype, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform globally with its server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for passionate engineers to help achieve that mission.

Are you passionate about working on cutting edge technology in 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”?

The Firmware Center of Excellence is responsible for Hardware/Firmware for Azure Infrastructure. We are working on the next generation Hardware/Firmware for server, silicon, and rack infrastructure with a focus on innovation in firmware technology to secure Azure infrastructure for Microsoft and their customers.

We are looking for highly motivated Principal Software Engineers with background in Firmware development in embedded systems.

**Responsibilities**:

- Participate in all phases of product development, including pre-silicon, post-silicon, and platform deployment in data centers.
- Drive, define, implement, and lead the execution of firmware development.
- Collaborate closely with silicon teams, firmware architects, and program management for daily operations and long-term roadmap improvements by incorporating key learnings.
- Contribute to the architecture and design of various firmware components, including driver interfaces (PCIe, SPI, I2C, I3C), system libraries for SoC bring-up, and protocol and feature development for low-level hardware.
- Mentor, guide, and assist peers and other team members.
- Identify and address inefficiencies and gaps in architecture, development, and execution.
- Advocate for a culture of engineering excellence within the team.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including hardware architects, engineers, software developers, validation & integration, and product managers, to define firmware requirements and specifications.
- Stay updated with industry trends and advancements in cloud firmware technologies and provide recommendations for improvement.
- Work closely with Microsoft product groups, industry partners, and researchers to architect and develop server hardware solutions that meet the requirements for cloud services platforms at the lowest possible total cost of ownership (TCO).

**Qualifications**:
**Required Qualifications**:

- Bachelor's or higher degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a related field.
- 14+ years of experience in firmware and/or embedded software development, particularly in a multi-core platform environment.
- 10+ years of programming experience in C/C++/Rust.
- Solid understanding of computer architectures, including processors, buses, and memories.
- Experience with device drivers, U-Boot, TFA, UEFI, and bootloader design for booting from external media such as eMMC, SDCard, etc.
- Experience with PCIe driver/firmware development in a virtualized environment.
- Experience with RAS management.
- Experience working with cross-functional teams on root cause analysis, troubleshooting, and debugging skills to solve complex hardware/firmware interface issues.
- Strong defensive coding skills.
- Demonstrated experience leading significant initiatives spanning multiple teams and organizations, leveraging deep domain expertise to influence the product roadmap.
- Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
- Self-motivated and able to work independently.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.

**Preferred Qualifications**:

- Experience working from the early concept of platform architecture and design.
- Prior experience in one or more of the following areas:

- Experience with design and development of platform SW development technologies like - IPMI, Redfish, Thermal Control, Power capping, PCIe card telemetry, etc.
- Experience with design and development of firmware update protocols like - MCTP, PLDM.
- Experience with platform management security protocols like - SPDM.
- Experience with Network controller software architecture and programming.
- Collaboration (aligned with team, across teams).
- Experience with coaching team members and helping them grow.
- Wants new technological challenges and able to deal with ambiguity.
- Strong problem solving, debugging & troubleshooting skills, advanced design, and development skills.
- Software arc