Principal Platform Power & Performance Engineer

Job ID: 200058985Posted: 2026-09-30Location: United States, Washington, RedmondSalary: USD $142,800 - $274,800 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 3 days / week in-officeRole type: Individual ContributorTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Hardware EngineeringDiscipline: Hardware EngineeringCompany: MicrosoftOverviewMicrosoft 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 Microsoft's 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 engineers to help achieve that mission. The next generation of cloud infrastructure is increasingly constrained not just by compute capability, but by power, performance efficiency, rack density, and how effectively every watt of infrastructure is converted into useful work. We are looking for an experienced Principal Platform Power & Performance Engineer to help shape the power and performance architecture of Azure Compute and AI infrastructure. In this role, you will work at the intersection of silicon, servers, firmware, operating systems, accelerators, workloads, and datacenter infrastructure. You will characterize real systems, identify efficiency bottlenecks, influence platform architecture, and develop optimizations that improve performance per watt while preserving workload performance and reliability. The impact goes well beyond benchmark tuning. Your work can influence how Azure platforms are designed, configured, provisioned, and operated across Compute and AI infrastructure. Come join this exciting and growing Cobalt team through our monumental evolution of cloud hardware at Azure and Microsoft!    #SCHIE ResponsibilitiesOwn end-to-end power and performance characterization of next-generation Azure compute platforms, from silicon and server bring-up through workload-level validation. Analyze the interaction between CPU/GPU utilization, memory, PCIe/I/O, firmware, OS power management, thermals, cooling, and workload behavior. Identify opportunities to improve: Performance per watt Idle and low-utilization efficiency Energy proportionality Rack power efficiency and density Workload throughput within platform power constraints Develop and evaluate dynamic power/performance-management strategies across idle, partially utilized, and fully loaded systems. Profile representative cloud and AI workloads to understand where energy is consumed and determine which system-level optimizations deliver meaningful efficiency improvements. Partner closely with silicon vendors, OEM/ODM partners, firmware teams, OS engineers, Azure Compute and AI infrastructure teams, and datacenter engineering teams to drive improvements from concept through production. Influence silicon features, BIOS/firmware policies, OS power management, platform controls, thermal strategies, and future hardware architecture using measured engineering data. Build telemetry and analysis methodologies that connect low-level platform behavior with workload performance and infrastructure-level efficiency. Diagnose complex cross-layer performance and power issues spanning hardware, firmware, kernel/OS, drivers, accelerators, and workloads. Translate engineering findings into recommendations that can influence fleet efficiency, capacity utilization, power provisioning, infrastructure cost, and future platform roadmaps. Provide technical leadership across multiple platform programs, define methodology and strategy, and drive ambiguous cross-organizational problems from investigation to deployment. QualificationsRequired Qualifications: Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years technical engineering experienceOR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experienceOR equivalent experience.Other Requirements: Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements is required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to, the following specialized security screening: Microsoft Cloud Background Check. This position is required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.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. Preferred Qualifications: 15+ years of relevant experience in server systems/platforms development and validation in computer architecture, systems engineering, platform performance, or power/performance engineering. Deep understanding of modern server architecture including: CPU microarchitecture and power states Memory subsystems PCIe and high-speed I/O BIOS/UEFI and firmware OS/kernel power management Thermal and cooling behavior Hands-on experience with platform performance analysis using tools such as Linux perf, hardware performance counters, tracing/profiling tools, telemetry systems, or equivalent Windows/Linux tooling. Ability to design controlled experiments, interpret noisy system-level data, establish correlations, and distinguish workload effects from platform bottlenecks. Experience debugging performance or power issues that cross multiple hardware/software layers. Proven scripting and data-analysis skills using Python, PowerShell, Bash, Kusto, or similar technologies. Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate detailed engineering analysis into decisions for architecture, product, and leadership audiences. Experience in one or more of the following would be particularly relevant: Large-scale cloud or hyperscale infrastructure AMD, Intel, Arm, NVIDIA, or other modern CPU/GPU platforms GPU and AI/ML workload characterization Power capping, DVFS, CPU/GPU power states, memory power management, or PCIe power management Server/rack power modeling and telemetry AI training or inference performance Performance-per-watt benchmarking Firmware or BMC-based platform controls Thermal and fan optimization Workload-aware or utilization-aware power management Capacity, rack-density, or datacenter power optimization 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. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: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.