• Senior Software Engineer

    Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA)


    Do you want to be at the forefront of innovating the latest hardware designs to propel Microsoft’s cloud growth? Are you seeking a unique career opportunity that combines technical expertise, cross-team collaboration, and strategic impact?

     

    Join the Systems Planning and Architecture (SPARC) team within Microsoft’s Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure (AHSI) organization, the team behind Microsoft’s expanding Cloud Infrastructure and for powering Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” mission. Microsoft delivers more than 200 online services to over one billion individuals worldwide. AHSI provides the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft’s cloud businesses, including Azure, Bing, MSN, Office 365, OneDrive, Skype, Teams, and Xbox Live.

     

    SPARC manages Azure’s hardware roadmap from concept through production for all current and future online services. This role is for a highly motivated Firmware Engineer with a strong background in driver design and development. You’ll work across all phases of product development—from secure silicon design through manufacturing and supply chain, and into high-scale deployment. At the design phase, you’ll collaborate with the security threat modeling team and contribute to silicon security architecture and low-level hardware accelerator design.

     

    Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees, we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to achieve our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond. In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

    Responsibilities

    + Lead firmware and driver architecture and design for accelerator chips during the silicon design phase.

    + Develop and maintain firmware components, including driver interfaces, power-on sequences, initialization routines, and low-level hardware protocols.

    + Collaborate across teams to support all phases of product development—from silicon design through manufacturing and productization.

    + Implement and optimize bootloaders, CPU initialization, and board support packages.

    + Design and integrate peripheral interfaces such as PCIe, NVMe, DMA, IOMMU, I2C, SPI, USB, and UARTs.

    + Apply knowledge of OS primitives, I/O processing, memory management, scheduling, interrupt handling, and threading to ensure robust system performance.

    + Debug and troubleshoot firmware and driver issues across Linux and Windows environments.

    Qualifications

    Required Qualifications

    + Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.

    + 4+ years of experience designing and developing Linux or Windows drivers, including technologies such as PCIe, USB,DMA, IOMMU.

    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

    + Experienced working with Virtualization Technologies.

    + Familiarity with GIT.

    + Proficiency in Rust programming language.

    + Familiarity with standard cryptography algorithms.

    + Demonstrated ability for problem solving, debugging, and troubleshooting skills.

     

    Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $158,400 - $258,000 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

     

    Microsoft will accept applications for the role until November 4, 2025.

     

    Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .