Firmware Engineer (SCHIE)

Overview

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 trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for engineers to help achieve that mission.

We are seeking a Firmware Engineer to join our team within SCHIE, where we build the foundational firmware that powers Microsoft's Azure infrastructure, including its cutting-edge AI silicon.

This role offers a unique opportunity to work across Azure's custom silicon programs and contribute directly to the firmware stack that enables Microsoft's most advanced AI workloads. Closely collaborating with our silicon, validation and data center partners to onboard our new custom silicon solutions into the fleet.

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We work with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. We build on the values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture where everyone can thrive.

This role is targeting an immediate start date.

#SCHIE

Responsibilities

• Develops firmware for telemetry systems, platform initialization, and board support packages across Azure's custom silicon programs.
• Develops and contributes to the design of low-level inter-core messaging services and SSIO interfaces such as I3C, I2C, UART, and SPI.
• Implements power-control loops, memory and cache management, boot sequencing, and other initialization flows for silicon enablement.
• Contributes to the development and evolution of RTOS and driver frameworks, with a focus on performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Develops and maintains OS-level performance infrastructure and debugging tools to support firmware development, troubleshooting, and issue analysis.
• Collaborates with silicon, hardware, and software teams to deliver secure, production-grade firmware that powers Azure's infrastructure.

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field 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.
• Citizenship & Citizenship Verification: This role will require access to information that is controlled for export under export control regulations, potentially under the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations or Export Administration Regulations, the EU Dual Use Regulation, and/or other export control regulations. As a condition of employment, the successful candidate will be required to provide either proof of their country of citizenship or proof of their U.S. permanent residency or other protected status (e.g., under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)) for assessment of eligibility to access the export-controlled information. To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate's citizenship will be verified with a valid passport. Lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees may verify status using other documents, where applicable.

Additional or preferred qualifications:

• Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field OR Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 2+ years technical engineering experience with coding OR equivalent experience.
• Proficient in C/C++.
• Experience debugging and resolving issues spanning multiple subsystems in the embedded ecosystem.
• Experience with one or more of the following: platform initialization, low level device drivers for peripherals/protocols such as I3C, I2C, SPI, USB, UARTs as well as Memory Management, Scheduling, Interrupts or multi-threading.
• Experience with board‑level bring‑up and lab debug (e.g., JTAG/SWD/GDB, UART/I²C/SPI/GPIO)
• Experience with SoC bring-up, OS primitives, memory management, and multi-threading.
• Experience in working in pre-silicon environments.

Firmware Engineering IC2 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $85,400 - $168,100 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 $111,100 - $183,700 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.