Senior Firmware Engineer
MicrosoftJob Title
Senior Firmware Engineer
Role Summary
Work on low-level SoC and silicon firmware for Microsoft Azure server infrastructure within Microsoft Silicon and Cloud Hardware Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE). The role focuses on firmware architecture, bring-up, validation, and cross-domain debugging for server-class platforms.
Experience Level
Senior. Preferred 7–10+ years industry experience; hiring criteria specify equivalencies such as 5+ years with a Bachelor's, 4+ years with a Master's, or 1+ year with a Doctorate (see Education Requirements).
Responsibilities
Key responsibilities include ownership of firmware components from architecture through production and cross-team debugging and validation.
- Design and implement low-level SoC and silicon firmware libraries and modular firmware APIs.
- Own firmware for one or more IPs/subsystems, including boot, initialization, reset, error handling and recovery flows.
- Define firmware/HW interfaces and initialization flows with silicon architects.
- Participate in pre-silicon validation, first-silicon bring-up and post-silicon validation.
- Perform system-level debugging across firmware, hardware and software boundaries using logs, telemetry, register state and hardware debug tools.
- Improve firmware quality via unit tests, validation automation and reusable test infrastructure.
- Drive issues from reproduction through root-cause analysis to resolution and mentor other engineers.
Requirements
Must-have technical skills and conditions; preferred items noted where applicable.
- Strong firmware design and development experience for server-class SoCs and platforms.
- Experience with pre-silicon validation using simulation/emulation platforms (FPGA, ZeBu, Palladium) and silicon bring-up.
- SoC debug expertise and hands-on experience with JTAG and industry debug tools such as Arm DS and Lauterbach TRACE32.
- Experience with ATE environments and initial wafer bring-up (preferred).
- Knowledge of platform and security firmware concepts (e.g., TrustZone) and OS driver development for Linux and Windows (preferred).
- Ability to work across architecture, RTL/DV, validation, security, platform firmware and driver teams.
- Ability to meet Microsoft Cloud security screening requirements, including passing Microsoft Cloud background check on hire and periodic rechecks.
Education Requirements
One of the following: Doctorate (Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science or related) with 1+ year technical engineering experience; OR Master’s in a related technical field with 4+ years experience; OR Bachelor’s in a related technical field with 5+ years experience; OR equivalent practical experience.
About the Company
Company: Microsoft
Headquarters: Redmond, Washington, United States
Microsoft is a global technology company that develops and sells software, services, devices, and solutions. Known for its Windows operating system, Office suite, and Azure cloud platform, Microsoft aims to empower individuals and organizations around the world to achieve more. The company fosters a culture of innovation and inclusion, focusing on delivering trusted experiences to customers and partners globally.
