Principal Hardware Engineer, AI Systems

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 Microsofts 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 passionate engineers to help achieve that mission. 

As Microsofts cloud business continues to grow the ability to deploy new offerings and hardware infrastructure on time, in high volume with high quality and lowest cost is of paramount importance. To achieve this goal, the Cloud Hardware Systems Engineering (CHSE) team is instrumental in defining and delivering operational measures of success for hardware manufacturing, improving the planning process, quality, delivery, scale and sustainability related to Microsoft cloud hardware. We are looking for engineers with a dedicated passion for customer focused solutions, insight and industry knowledge to envision and implement future technical solutions that will manage and optimize the Cloud infrastructure.  

We are looking for a Principal Hardware Engineer, AI Systems to join the team. 

Responsibilities

• Serve as the System Technical Lead (STL) and end-to-end technical owner for next-generation AI and GPU platforms from architecture handoff through production deployment and fleet readiness.  
• Partner closely with System Architects to translate product requirements, workload needs, architectural intent, and new technologies into executable system designs, engineering requirements, and development plans. 
• Drive program-level technical execution across hardware, firmware, software, validation, manufacturing, and datacenter infrastructure teams, ensuring alignment to system requirements, architecture specifications, schedule, and quality objectives.  
• Lead cross-functional technical decision making and resolve complex system-level tradeoffs spanning performance, power, thermal, mechanical, reliability, manufacturability, serviceability, cost, and total cost of ownership (TCO). 
• Own technical readiness for key program milestones, design reviews, phase exits, and production releases, ensuring engineering deliverables are complete, integrated, and meet quality expectations.  
• Maintain end-to-end system integrity across electrical, mechanical, thermal, firmware, networking, rack, and datacenter domains, ensuring seamless integration from component to rack and cluster level.  
• Drive alignment across engineering disciplines including Electrical, Mechanical, Thermal, Power, Firmware, System Engineering, Validation, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain teams to deliver a cohesive system solution.  
• Partner with TPMs to establish and manage program technical baselines, assess technical impacts of design changes, identify risks, and drive issue resolution throughout the development lifecycle.  
• Evaluate, de-risk, and enable adoption of new and disruptive technologies, including AI accelerators, advanced memory architectures, liquid cooling solutions, optical interconnects, rack-scale infrastructure, and emerging datacenter technologies. 
• Collaborate with ODMs, silicon suppliers, and ecosystem partners to influence technical direction, resolve critical issues, and ensure successful integration and production readiness.  

• Communicate technical status, risks, mitigation plans, and key decisions to engineering leadership and executive stakeholders while serving as the primary point of accountability for program technical success.  

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years technical engineering experience
  • OR Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience
  • OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements:

• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:
  • Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter. 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Proven track record leading cross-functional technical execution across hardware, firmware, software, and datacenter infrastructure. 
• Deep system expertise in power delivery, thermal and liquid cooling, signal integrity, mechanical design, and reliability. 
• Experience bringing high-volume silicon platforms (GPU, SoC, accelerator) from architecture through production ramp. 
• Hands-on experience with PCIe, DDR, Ethernet, BIOS/BMC, and Linux and Windows integration. 
• Experience with datacenter-scale AI systems, including system debug and root cause analysis. 
• Proven ability to evaluate AI systems using performance-per-watt and performance-per-dollar metrics. 
• Clear, concise communicator with the ability to influence technical direction across teams and at senior levels.
• BS / MS in Electrical/Computer Engineering or equivalent industry experience
• 10+ 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 hands-on experience in server hardware architecture, design, and development with solid understanding of hardware, firmware, and Operating System (OS). 
• Proven experience delivering AI and GPU-based systems to production.

Hardware Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year.