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 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

Responsibilities

Own 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.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years technical engineering experience
OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience
OR 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:
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.

About the company

Microsoft builds workplace software, operating systems and cloud infrastructure for consumers, businesses and government agencies, from small organizations to global enterprises. Microsoft 365 combines Word and Excel with Teams communication and Copilot AI features, while Windows runs PCs and Surface supplies the company's own computers. Azure rents computing capacity, storage and databases to build and run web applications. Microsoft also sells Xbox consoles and games, collecting revenue through software licenses, subscriptions, usage charges and product sales. Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

Redmond, Washington

Founded

1975

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

US corporate staff receive education support: eligible, approved graduate coursework qualifies for up to $10,000 annually.
Cloud demand expands: July 2026 results showed Azure and other cloud services revenue grew 43% year-over-year in fiscal Q4.
Investment has an earnings cushion: July 2026 results reported $155.2 billion consolidated operating profit for fiscal 2026.

What critics are saying

Performance reviews include security: every Microsoft employee must discuss their security contribution with their manager.
Office flexibility depends on the role: Microsoft's postings specify requirements ranging from fully remote to fully on-site.
Cloud capacity faces local limits: Microsoft describes power-grid delays and water constraints affecting US datacenter expansion.

What makes Microsoft unique

Hybrid customers stay within reach: Azure Arc manages servers across customer datacenters and competing clouds.
Developer reach extends beyond Azure: Microsoft's GitHub hosts code collaboration alongside AI coding tools.
Professional data widens its business: Microsoft owns LinkedIn's recruiting, advertising and workplace-learning network.

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Benefits

Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
401(k) Company Match
Professional Development Budget
Conference Attendance Budget
Flexible Work Hours
Remote Work Options

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

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Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, more than a quarter of its global workforce, as it tries to control costs and fund its artificial intelligence (AI) push. The offer covers eligible staff at level 70 and below in the US, Canada, India, and the UK. Microsoft forecasts about $175 billion in capital expenditures and finance leases for the 2026 calendar year. Staff working on Copilot and AI experiences are eligible, as are those in finance, human resources, Xbox, and Windows + Devices. Sean Campbell, chief executive officer of Cascade Insights, says Microsoft is falling behind in the AI race. He says a buyout could suit workers who want to reach the job market before their peers. The offer follows an earlier buyout to about 9,000 US employees and roughly 4,800 job cuts in July.

The Register

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Associated Press

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CNBC

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Fortune

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Xbox's new pay-as-you-go cloud gaming, from $4 for 10 hours, angers gamers over rising costs

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Microsoft

Principal Platform Power & Performance Engineer

About the job

About the company

Get referred to Microsoft

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

What critics are saying

What makes Microsoft unique

Benefits

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

1 year growth

2 year growth