Full-Time
Principal Platform Power and Performance Engineer
Cloud Hardware Systems Engineering
Updated on 8/11/2026
Microsoft
10,001+ employees
Develops software, OS, and cloud services
Compensation Overview
$142.8k - $304.2k/yr
Company Historically Provides H1B Sponsorship
Redmond, WA, USA + 2 more
More locations: Hillsboro, OR, USA | Mountain View, CA, USA
In Person
Bachelor's, Master's
 Hardware Engineering (2) |
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- A Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field and 7 or more years of technical engineering experience; or a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field and 8 or more years of technical engineering experience; or equivalent experience.
- At least 8 years of relevant experience in compute and/or artificial intelligence systems or platforms design and development.
- At least 8 years of experience with system-on-chip, central processing unit, graphics processing unit, or artificial intelligence accelerator architectures, including power management, performance analysis, memory subsystems, interconnects, power delivery, and thermal solutions.
- At least 8 years of experience collaborating across hardware, firmware, operating systems, silicon architecture, and validation engineering teams to deliver platform solutions.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.
- Lead platform power and performance strategy for next-generation Microsoft artificial intelligence compute platforms, driving performance-per-watt, scalability, efficiency, and total cost of ownership.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship for a team of engineers while leading cross-functional initiatives addressing platform power, performance, and efficiency challenges.
- Partner with business, architecture, silicon, firmware, hardware, validation, operating systems, manufacturing, and customer engineering teams to define requirements and deliver optimized platform solutions.
- Drive silicon and platform power-performance architecture, including workload characterization, power management features, frequency/voltage optimization, memory subsystem efficiency, accelerator utilization, and system-level performance tuning.
- Analyze and optimize interactions between silicon, power delivery, thermal solutions, firmware, operating systems, and datacenter infrastructure to maximize performance, efficiency, reliability, and operational scalability.
- Lead power-performance characterization, profiling, and benchmarking across Azure datacenter deployments using customer workloads, artificial intelligence training and inference applications, and synthetic benchmarks to guide data-driven design decisions.
- Influence future silicon and platform roadmaps through analysis of workload behavior, performance bottlenecks, power-efficiency opportunities, and emerging artificial intelligence infrastructure requirements.
- Communicate technical strategies, tradeoffs, and recommendations to engineering leadership and executive stakeholders, driving alignment across organizations and accelerating delivery of next-generation artificial intelligence infrastructure.
- Experience with hyperscale cloud infrastructure, large-scale artificial intelligence compute platforms, and datacenter operations.
- Experience with custom silicon, artificial intelligence accelerators, and silicon bring-up from pre-silicon validation through production deployment.
- Knowledge of server architecture, power delivery systems, and liquid cooling technologies.
- Experience with workload characterization, profiling, benchmarking, and performance analysis for artificial intelligence and machine-learning workloads in large-scale datacenter environments.
- Experience optimizing performance, efficiency, and performance-per-watt across hardware and software systems.
- Experience leading cross-functional technical initiatives spanning multiple engineering disciplines.
Microsoft develops software, devices, and cloud services. Windows is an operating system that runs on personal computers, Office provides productivity apps, and Azure offers cloud computing and developer tools. The company differentiates itself with a large, integrated ecosystem of software, devices, and services, plus long-standing partnerships with PC makers and a broad enterprise footprint. Its goal is to put a computer on every desk and in every home, and to extend that reach through cloud services, professional networking (LinkedIn), and gaming.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Redmond, Washington
Founded
1975
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- August 2026 Hyderabad expanded Microsoft to four India regions, deepening local AI capacity.
- Microsoft reported $24.1 billion OpenAI-linked revenue for fiscal 2026, monetizing AI demand.
- September 2026 Maia 300 could reduce Nvidia dependence and improve AI margins.
What critics are saying
- FTC probes cloud licensing, Copilot bundling, and Entra ID; remedies arrive in 2027.
- EU DMA and CMA investigations target Azure gatekeeper status and rival-cloud switching fees.
- July 2026 cut 4,800 jobs while $175 billion capex crushes free cash flow; existentially, customers defect to open-source AI stacks.
What makes Microsoft unique
- Windows, Office, Azure, and Entra anchor Microsoft’s enterprise distribution across workflows.
- July 2026 Azure grew 43%, with fiscal 2026 cloud revenue exceeding $214 billion.
- August 2026 Frontier Company embeds 6,000 experts, packaging deployment, governance, and model integration.
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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
↑ 0%1 year growth
↓ -1%2 year growth
↑ 0%Microsoft returned $223 billion to investors over five years through share buybacks and dividends, ranking third among all US companies. However, this represented just 6.0% of Microsoft's market value, well below the S&P 500 median of 16.2%. The cash return is funded by Microsoft's cloud business, with annual revenue exceeding $331 billion. Azure and cloud services grew 43% in the latest quarter, with management noting demand outstrips capacity. Despite the substantial payout, Microsoft's stock returned 83% over the period, trailing the S&P 500's 88%. Legacy segments are declining, with Windows OEM and Devices revenue expected to drop in the high teens, whilst Xbox revenue fell 10% last quarter. The company is pivoting towards AI and cloud whilst older divisions contract.
Microsoft plans to unveil its Maia 300 AI accelerator chip as early as September, according to The Information. The tech giant is in talks with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to produce over 300,000 units for delivery in 2027, with longer-term ambitions exceeding one million units. The move marks a significant expansion from the Maia 200, which faced delays after failing early tests and has only been deployed in limited data centres. CEO Satya Nadella stated the Maia 200 delivers 30% better performance per dollar than existing hardware. Microsoft aims to reduce dependence on Nvidia through its homegrown chip programme. The company is targeting customers including Anthropic, though the AI startup recently announced plans to develop its own custom chips. Supply constraints around TSMC's advanced packaging technology could affect the production timeline through 2027.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed the company's custom AI chips deliver up to 40% better performance per watt when running its MAI language models, compared to relying solely on external suppliers like Nvidia. This efficiency gain could boost margins in Microsoft's cloud segment, its primary growth driver. The tech giant reported strong fourth-quarter results for fiscal 2026, with Azure cloud sales growing 43% year-over-year, up from 40% the previous quarter. Microsoft ended the fiscal year with a $678 billion cloud backlog, an 84% increase year-over-year. As AI infrastructure spending potentially approaches $1 trillion within three years, Microsoft's improved chip economics position it to capitalise on sustained demand for cloud services.
Microsoft stock trades at $499.86, down 4.5% over the past year despite the S&P 500's 23% gain. The company's net margin stands at a multi-year peak of 40%, but gross margin fell to 67% in fiscal Q4 2026, declining year-over-year. Management attributes the gross margin pressure to Azure's growth and AI infrastructure investment. Azure expanded 43% in the quarter, with demand exceeding capacity. However, roughly two-thirds of capital spending went to short-lived assets like CPUs and GPUs. Free cash flow was $19.6 billion in Q4, down from $55.4 billion in operating cash flow due to higher capital expenditure. The company plans approximately $175 billion in capital spending for calendar 2026 against trailing twelve-month revenue of $331.8 billion. Management's fiscal 2027 outlook projects a slight operating margin decline despite double-digit revenue growth expectations.
Microsoft has opened its fourth data centre region in India, marking a key milestone in its $20.5 billion investment to expand cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in the country. The new Azure facility strengthens Microsoft's presence in one of the world's fastest-growing digital markets. The expansion forms part of the company's broader strategy to enhance its cloud computing capabilities across India. This investment underscores the growing importance of the Indian market for global technology firms seeking to capitalise on increasing demand for cloud services and AI technologies.