{"id":2212720,"url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-principal-silicon-operations-engineering-lead","title":"Principal Silicon Operations Engineering Lead","company":{"id":18,"name":"Microsoft","domain":"microsoft.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/microsoft","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Eightfold","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":86,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"}},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Raleigh, United States","Mountain View, United States","Hillsboro, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":142800,"max":274800,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":274800},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":12,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"HPC","optional":false},{"name":"OneDrive","optional":false},{"name":"Power BI","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-07T16:42:21Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-09","last_verified_at":"2026-10-12T18:16:37Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":5,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":5},"description":"OverviewMicrosoft Silicon Cloud Hardware 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, Skype, 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 trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for passionate engineers to help achieve that mission.\nOur team is creative and resourceful; we value growth and learning. We want to amplify your abilities so you can do your best work. Join us, and together we will turn groundbreaking hardware designs into reality!\nMicrosoft's Silicon Cloud Hardware Infrastructure Engineering organization is seeking a Lead Negotiator, EDA Tools & Strategy to own the commercial strategy, negotiation, and lifecycle governance of Microsoft's Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and silicon engineering technology portfolio.\nThis role is the single point of accountability for how Microsoft acquires, deploys, and optimizes EDA tools across a global custom silicon organization. You will lead enterprise negotiations and renewals with the semiconductor industry's largest EDA and IP suppliers, shape the multi-year tooling strategy in partnership with CAD and silicon design leadership, and establish the licensing, consumption analytics, and supplier governance frameworks that turn a multi-hundred-million-dollar tooling portfolio into measurable engineering leverage. You will operate across Engineering, Finance, Procurement, and Legal, influence executive stakeholders without direct authority, and translate deep technical requirements into commercial terms that scale with Microsoft's long-term silicon roadmap.\n#azurehwjobs #SCHIE #MILE\nResponsibilities\nEDA Commercial Strategy & Negotiation Leadership\nServe as Microsoft's lead negotiator for EDA, design IP, and silicon engineering technology agreements, owning deal strategy, negotiation planning, and term structures through executive approval and signature.\n\nDefine the multi-year commercial strategy across the EDA supplier portfolio, including renewal sequencing, competitive leverage, bundling and unbundling decisions, and alternative sourcing options.\n\nBuild negotiation business cases with modeled scenarios, total-cost-of-ownership analysis, benchmarking, and executive recommendations that balance engineering capability against cost and risk.\n\nPartner with Procurement and Legal to structure enterprise agreements, licensing constructs, and contract terms that scale with silicon program demand and protect Microsoft's long-term flexibility.\n\nOwn post-signature contract governance including amendments, true-ups, entitlement compliance, audit readiness, and escalation management.\n\nEDA Portfolio, Licensing & Cost Optimization\nOwn planning, forecasting, reporting, and financial governance for Microsoft's EDA and engineering tooling portfolio.\n\nDrive license optimization through consumption analytics, peak-demand modeling, license pooling strategies, and reallocation across silicon programs, phases, and geographies.\n\nPartner closely with Finance on budget, accrual, and forecast accuracy, and deliver quantified savings and cost-avoidance targets year over year.\n\nEstablish demand managementand chargeback models that create accountability for tool consumption across engineering teams.\n\nSupplier Relationship & Performance Governance\nOwn executive-level relationships with EDA vendors.\n\nDefine and operatesupplier KPIs, SLAs, quarterly business reviews, roadmap reviews, and escalation frameworks.\n\nHold suppliers accountable for supportquality, roadmap commitments, and delivery against contracted outcomes, and drive continuous improvement plans where performance gaps exist.\n\nRepresent Microsoft in supplier executive forums and industry engagements on EDA strategy and ecosystem direction.\n\nTechnical Partnership with Silicon & CAD Engineering\nPartner with CAD, design, verification, and physical design teams to translate technical tool requirements into sourcing strategy and commercial outcomes.\n\nBuild and maintainthe multi-year EDA tool roadmap aligned to silicon program milestones, node transitions, and methodologychanges.\n\nEvaluate emerging capabilities, including AI-assisted design, cloud and HPC burst compute, and new methodologyflows, and drive adoption decisions with engineering leadership.\n\nEnsure tooling strategy is aligned with engineering compute capacity planning and Cloud/HPC infrastructure investments.\n\nBusiness Intelligence, Analytics & AI Enablement\nOwn the analytics strategy for EDA dollarspend,license utilization, supplier performance, and portfolio health.\n\nDevelop executive dashboards and KPI frameworks that convert tooling, contract, and consumption data into actionable decisions.\n\nApply AI and automation to renewal readiness, entitlement tracking, contract intelligence, and consumption forecasting to increase speed and accuracy of commercial decision making.\n\nExecutive Engagement & Cross-Functional Leadership\nServe as a trusted advisor to silicon engineering executives on tooling investment, supplier risk, and commercial strategy.\n\nLead executive business reviews, negotiation readouts, and investment decision forums, simplifying complexity into clear recommendations.\n\nBuild durable partnerships across Engineering, Finance, Procurement, Legal, IT, and external partners, driving outcomes without direct authority.\n\nRaise negotiation, supplier management, and commercial acumen across the broader silicon operations community through mentorship and reusable frameworks.\n\nQualifications\nRequired/Minimum Qualifications\nDoctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years technical engineering experienceOR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience\nOR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience. \n\nOther Requirements:\nThis 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. \nAbility 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. \n\nPreferred Qualifications\nDoctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years technical engineering experience OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience.\n\n1+ year(s) experience working on or leading projects from beginning-to-end.\n10+ years of experience in commercial negotiation, strategic sourcing, supplier or vendor management, technical program management, technology strategy, or technology business operations.\n5+ years of experience leading enterprise-scale negotiations, contracts, or licensing agreements, including pricing models, commercial terms, and contract structuring.\n3+ years of experience managing a technology, licensing, services, or supplier portfolio with direct budget or financial accountability.\nExperience partnering and consulting across engineering, finance, procurement, and legal teams to deliver cross-functional business outcomes.\nExperience negotiating or managing EDA, design IP, or semiconductor design tool agreements.\nSemiconductor, silicon engineering, or hardware development experience, including familiarity with the silicon development lifecycle and CAD flows (Front-End, Physical Design, Analog).\nExperience with software licensing models, entitlement management, consumption-based pricing, and license optimization at enterprise scale.\nExperience defining supplier governance frameworks, KPIs, SLAs, and executive business review cadences for multi-million-dollar engagements.\nExperience building analytics and executive reporting (for example, Power BI) to drive spend, utilization, or supplier performance decisions.\nExperience applying AI and automation to contracting, sourcing, or operational workflows.\nExperience supporting global engineering organizations in a highly matrixed environment.\nManagement consulting or professional services background spanning RFPs, SOWs, engagement pricing models, and managed services governance.\nSilicon 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.\nCertain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:\nhttps://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay\nThis position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.\nMicrosoft 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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":11307,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":12,"management_years_min":5,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Console Games","Cloud Platforms (IaaS & PaaS)","Gaming Consoles","Developer Tools"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-10T04:07:18Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":61,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.612,"p_room":1,"age_days":4,"expected_fill_days":19,"reasons":["conf:1","stale_co","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-12T06:55:09Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":274800,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-principal-silicon-operations-engineering-lead","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-principal-silicon-operations-engineering-lead.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-12T22:13:43Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":36450,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-13T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":18},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=18"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-principal-silicon-operations-engineering-lead"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-principal-silicon-operations-engineering-lead"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-principal-silicon-operations-engineering-lead"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/microsoft-principal-silicon-operations-engineering-lead\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-principal-silicon-operations-engineering-lead"}]}