Principal Firmware Architect

Overview


Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and implement firmware solutions for embedded systems.
• Contribute to all phases of product development, from initial design and architecture through manufacturing and productization.
• Define and develop firmware architecture for key systems, ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Collaborate closely with hardware engineering teams to ensure seamless integration between hardware and firmware.
• Design, develop, and maintain firmware components, including driver interfaces, system libraries, and low-level hardware interfaces.
• Support SoC bring-up, platform initialization, bootloader development, and board support package (BSP) porting.
• Develop and optimize firmware for hardware interfaces and peripherals, including PCIe, NVMe, I2C, SPI, USB, and UART.
• Contribute to internal fabric, protocol development, and low-level hardware feature implementation.
• Implement and optimize operating system primitives, including memory management, scheduling, interrupts, and threading.
• Debug, troubleshoot, and resolve complex firmware and hardware integration issues.
• Provide technical leadership in firmware design, development, testing, and validation.
• Partner with cross-functional engineering teams to ensure successful system integration, product readiness, and deployment.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience
  • OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, 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 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.
• 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. 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:

• Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years technical engineering experience with coding OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding OR equivalent experience.
• 1+ year(s) experience working on or leading projects from beginning-to-end.
• Experience writing architecture documents for systems implemented by other teams.
• Experience with SoC bring-up and internal workings, such as internal fabric, power management, reset flows, and secure operational flows.
• Strong collaboration skills, including coordinating with both inside the team and outside stakeholders.
• Experience with Rust is also helpful.

Firmware 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.

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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.