Principal Software Engineer - Blade Server BMC Firmware Development
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Sep 27, 2026. First seen by Alion on Sep 16, 2026. Microsoft scores B on the Alion truth index.
Microsoft Silicon and 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 a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide. We are looking for collaborative and motivated engineers who are excited to contribute their skills and perspectives to help achieve that mission. As Microsoft's cloud business continues to grow the ability to deploy new offerings and HW infrastructure on time, in high volume with high quality and lowest cost is of paramount importance.
The Firmware Center of Excellence is responsible for Hardware/Firmware for Azure Infrastructure. We are working on the next generation Hardware/Firmware for server, silicon and rack infrastructure with a focus on innovation in firmware technology to secure Azure infrastructure for Microsoft and their customers.
We are looking for highly motivated Principal Software Engineers with a background in Firmware architecture & design who can influence the partners and drive end to end (E2E) solutions from concept to production. Experience with Platform & System-on-Chip (SoC) Architecture and Design, bring up of SoC, root causing issues at the intersection of multiple subsystems across firmware and hardware.
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.
Responsibilities
- Design and architect firmware solutions for Cloud Hardware systems, focusing on system-level E2E design,debugging and troubleshooting.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams including hardware engineers, software developers, validation &integration, and product managers to define firmware requirements and specifications.
- Develop and maintain firmware architecture, ensuring scalability, modularity, and maintainability.
- Develop Security threat models for the platform working with vendors & Security teams.
- Stay up-to-date with industry trends and advancements in firmware technologies, and provide recommendations for improvement.
- Work closely with Microsoft product groups, industry partners and researchers to architect and develop server hardware solutions that meet the requirements for our cloud services platforms at the lowest possible cost of ownership.
- Design and implement firmware modules to support various hardware interfaces, including USB vNIC, SPI, I2C, I3C, PCIe, and other related protocols.
- Provide technical leadership and guidance to internal developers or external partners to deliver serviceable, reliable, and scalable solutions.
- Contribute to product vision and roadmap by bringing innovation to server manageability ecosystem.
- Perform system-level debugging and troubleshooting to identify and resolve hardware/firmware-related issues
- Perform system-level debugging and troubleshooting to identify and resolve hardware/firmware-related issues
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, or Python
- 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.
- Microsoft Cloud Background Check:
Additional or preferred qualifications
- Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, or Python
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, or Python
- OR equivalent experience.
- 6+ years of professional experience in architecting, designing and developing firmware/software solutions.
- Experience in BMC, Embedded Linux, U-Boot and Board Support Packages (BSP) porting.
- 6+ years of experience with any of the following: Platform initialization, low level drivers for peripherals such as PCIe, I2C, eMMC, SPI, USB, UARTs, Memory Management, Scheduling, Interrupts or multi-threading technologies.In-depth knowledge of hardware and firmware interfaces: OpenBMC, DMTF MCTP, Redfish, PLDM, SPDM and RAS.
- Collaboration (aligned with team, across teams).
- Committed to coaching team members and supporting their continued growth and development.
- Seeks technological challenges and able to deal with ambiguity.
- Problem solving, debugging troubleshooting skills, advanced design, and development skills.
- Self-motivated and able to work independently with minimal supervision.
- Detailed knowledge of core networking protocols and REST API frameworks is an added plus.
Software 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.