FAE - Principal Field Applications Engineer (Customer Facing/Design-Win Focused)

Principal-Level Field Applications Engineer Are you looking for a unique opportunity to be a part of something great? Want to join a 17,000-member team that works on the technology that powers the world around us? Looking for an atmosphere of trust, empowerment, respect, diversity, and communication? How about an opportunity to own a piece of a multi-billion dollar (with a B!) global organization? We offer all that and more at Microchip Technology Inc. People come to work at Microchip because we help design the technology that runs the world. They stay because our culture supports their growth and stability. They are challenged and driven by an incredible array of products and solutions with unlimited career potential. Microchip's nationally-recognized Leadership Passage Programs support career growth where we proudly enroll over a thousand people annually. We take pride in our commitment to employee development, values-based decision making, and strong sense of community, driven by our Vision, Mission, and 11 Guiding Values; we affectionately refer to it as the Aggregate System and it's won us countless awards for diversity and workplace excellence. Our company is built by dedicated team players who love to challenge the status quo; we did not achieve record revenue and over 30 years of quarterly profitability without a great team dedicated to empowering innovation. People like you. Visit our careers page to see what exciting opportunities and company perks await! Job Description: We are seeking a Principal-level Field Applications Engineer with a rare combination of deep embedded design expertise and extensive customer-facing experience. This role is ideal for someone who has spent 10+ years working directly with customers in a technical capacity—whether in sales engineering, field applications engineering, customer solutions, or technical consulting—and who thrives on owning an embedded solution from first customer conversation through production and long-term support. This is not a pure development role and not a pure sales role. You will act as a technical lead, architect, and trusted advisor, helping customers define requirements, win internal buy-in, and successfully deliver production-grade embedded software. Key Responsibilities Customer Engagement & Design Wins Act as a primary technical interface to customers, owning relationships from initial engagement through product launch Proactively identify new opportunities for design wins by understanding customer roadmaps, pain points, and business drivers Translate customer requirements into complete embedded system architectures Present and iterate on technical solutions with customer engineering and management teams Partner closely with sales to drive design wins to revenue, while independently leading the technical strategy Embedded System Architecture & Design Architect end-to-end embedded solutions, including hardware, firmware, and supporting tools Design production-level hardware (schematic design, component selection, design for manufacturability) Develop production-level embedded firmware applications in C/C++ for microcontroller-based systems Implement RTOS-based designs, bootloaders, firmware update mechanisms, and peripheral drivers Adapt and extend reference designs to meet customer-specific requirements Implementation, Debug & Support Own the technical success of customer projects through: System bring-up and debugging Root-cause analysis of hardware and firmware issues Bug fixes and feature enhancements throughout the product lifecycle Support customers post-design-win with: Production readiness Sustaining engineering Feature expansion and roadmap alignment Required Experience & Skills Customer-Facing Experience (Critical) 10+ years in a customer-facing technical role, such as: Field Applications Engineer Sales Engineer Customer Solutions Engineer Embedded Systems Consultant Proven ability to: Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences Build credibility and trust with customer engineering teams Balance multiple customer engagements simultaneously Embedded Technical Expertise 10+ years of hands-on embedded system design experience Strong experience with: Embedded C/C++ Microcontrollers and system architecture RTOS-based firmware development Serial interfaces (I2C, SPI, UART, USB etc.) Firmware update and bootloader design Git-based workflows Hardware design experience including: Schematic capture Component selection Board bring-up and debugging Proficiency with lab tools (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, debuggers) Soft Skills & Mindset Comfortable operating in ambiguity and defining solutions from incomplete requirements Strong sense of ownership and accountability Self-directed, proactive, and comfortable working with minimal supervision Enjoys both technical depth and customer interaction Able to prioritize across multiple opportunities while maintaining technical excellence Able to act as a team leader with help drive large designs from Nice-to-Have (Differentiators) CI/CD for embedded firmware Experience with embedded Linux Secure boot and secure firmware update Networking (wired or wireless) Python for automation or tooling Experience supporting products through volume production Travel Time: 0% - 25% Physical Attributes: Hearing, Seeing, Talking, Works Alone, Works Around Others Physical Requirements: 90% Sitting, 10% Standing/Walking Microchip Technology Inc is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. For more information on applicable equal employment regulations, please refer to the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal Poster. To all recruitment agencies: Microchip Technology Inc. does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our recruiting team or other Microchip employees. Microchip is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes. Microchip Technology