Senior Principal Hardware Engineer

Job ID: 200066239Posted: 2026-11-12Location: United States, Washington, RedmondSalary: USD $165,600 - $296,400 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 3 days / week in-officeRole type: Individual ContributorTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Hardware EngineeringDiscipline: Electrical 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 passionate, high-energy engineers to help achieve that mission. As Microsoft's 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 Hardware, Infrastructure Management, and Fundamentals Engineering (HIFE) 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 seasoned 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.ResponsibilitiesTechnical Leadership with a focus on complex quality solutions with external/internal partners.Versed in AI tooling/Agentic utilization for scaling debug/Data managementDrive the continuous improvement process based on Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and identified opportunities.Develop and implement a robust supplier quality management strategy to ensure the data center hardware is manufactured at the highest level of quality standards. Leadership to work across data centers, development groups, and suppliers to resolve critical & high severity issues (Hardware and Software/Firmware).Conduct hands on debug in global data centers (onsite and virtual) specifically focused on GPU sub-system failure analysis.Manage multiple NPI builds and quality phase-gate deliverables for the manufacturing team throughout the engineering development lifecycle, from concept through production readiness. Establish Critical-to-Quality performance metrics to measure and improve product quality. Act as the voice of quality in the hardware change management process, ensuring quality requirements are considered and met. QualificationsRequired Qualifications:Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 9+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 11+ 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:Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, System Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, System Engineering, or related field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, System Engineering, or related field AND 15+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience. Patent or track record of engineering excellency. 12+ years of experience in working with the modern server architectures – includes understanding of GPU, GPU system hardware, Memory or CPU and methods for failure analysis, debugging or validation.  12+ years of proven success of leading resolution of critical quality issues across data centers 8+ years of system level server debugging with an understanding of power, system, driver, workloads, and network environments 3+ years of direct GPU related engineering experience in issue debug/test log review.  Experience with Liquid Cooling Systems in Data CentersLeadership skills and ability to collaborate with diverse teams and drive a call to action.  Versed in filtering through applicable debug data, like telemetry and logs to identify and investigate HW failure signatures.Versed in AI tooling/Agentic utilization for scaling debug/Data management #AHSI#SCHIE#AzureHWjobs #HIFE Electrical Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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.