Microsoft

Senior Firmware Engineer

Microsoft$102K — $202K *
Consumer Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Doctorate or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with corresponding technical experience.
  • 5+ years of firmware or embedded software development experience in server or datacenter platforms.
  • Strong proficiency in C/C++ with complete software development lifecycle knowledge.
  • Ability to independently diagnose complex cross-stack issues across hardware and software.
  • Proven leadership skills for driving collaboration among engineering teams and managing external partnerships.

Responsibilities

  • Own firmware-based diagnostic readiness for Azure server platforms from architecture to production support.
  • Design comprehensive diagnostic frameworks integrating hardware, firmware, and cloud health systems.
  • Lead validation and root cause investigations for complex hardware and firmware issues.
  • Develop telemetry and health monitoring tools to enhance fleet reliability.
  • Collaborate with silicon vendors and platform teams to enhance diagnostic requirements and serviceability.
  • Mentor and guide engineers through design reviews and best practices.

Benefits

  • Opportunities for professional development and mentorship.
  • Flexible work arrangements to support work-life balance.
  • Comprehensive health benefits and wellness programs.
  • Access to cutting-edge technology and resources in a leading cloud environment.
  • Involvement in high-impact projects that influence Microsoft Azure infrastructure.
Full Job Description
Overview

We are seeking a Senior Firmware Engineer with deep expertise in platform firmware, hardware diagnostics, and failure analysis to drive end-to-end diagnostic capabilities across Azure server platforms. In this role, you will be a technical leader responsible for architecting, developing, and deploying firmware-based diagnostic solutions that enable rapid fault isolation, root-cause analysis, and predictive health monitoring for compute, memory, storage, networking, and accelerator subsystems.

You will work across the hardware, firmware, operating system, and cloud-stack boundaries, partnering closely with silicon vendors, platform engineering teams, datacenter operations, reliability engineering, and Azure service teams to improve hardware quality and reduce customer impact from infrastructure failures. Your work will directly influence the reliability and availability of millions of servers powering Microsoft's cloud services.

Responsibilities
  • Own firmware-based diagnostic readiness across Azure server platforms from architecture and bring-up through production support.
  • Design diagnostic frameworks across silicon telemetry, hardware interfaces, platform firmware, operating systems, and cloud health systems.
  • Lead platform bring-up, validation, and root-cause investigations for complex hardware, firmware, and system software issues.
  • Develop diagnostic telemetry, health monitoring, fault-detection, automation, and triage tooling to improve fleet reliability.
  • Collaborate with silicon vendors, ODM/OEM partners, and internal platform teams to define diagnostic requirements and improve serviceability.
  • Mentor engineers and drive engineering excellence through design reviews, code reviews, metrics, validation coverage, and secure firmware practices.


Qualifications

Required Qualifications
  • Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 1+ year(s) technical engineering experience OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ 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.

Additional qualifications
  • Experience with large-scale cloud infrastructure, hyperscale datacenters, Azure infrastructure, or fleet health management systems.
  • 6+ years developing platform firmware, embedded software, or low-level systems software for server, embedded, or datacenter platforms.
  • Strong proficiency in C/C++ with experience building, debugging, and shipping firmware solutions through full development cycles.
  • Experience developing or debugging firmware-based diagnostic and validation solutions for server-class hardware.
  • Ability to independently root-cause cross-stack issues involving hardware, firmware, operating systems, telemetry, and infrastructure.
  • Strong collaboration and technical leadership skills, including driving discussions across multiple engineering organizations and external partners.
  • Knowledge of memory diagnostics, PCIe diagnostics, storage reliability, accelerator/GPU health monitoring, or platform serviceability.
  • Experience with firmware telemetry pipelines, cloud-scale diagnostic data analytics, reliability analysis, or predictive failure detection.
  • Experience developing automation frameworks for validation, failure triage, manufacturing diagnostics, data collection, or fleet-scale testing.
  • Experience with Rust, C#, Redfish protocols, and service-oriented architecture for firmware, diagnostics, platform management, or telemetry systems.
  • Experience using AI-assisted or agentic code development workflows to improve engineering productivity, automation, validation, or diagnostics tooling.

#SCHIE

Firmware Engineering IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 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.

About Microsoft

Microsoft is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services. Microsoft’s devices and consumer (D&C) licensing segment licenses the Windows operating system and related software, Microsoft Office for consumers, and the Windows Phone operating system. The company’s computing and gaming hardware segment provides Xbox gaming and entertainment consoles and accessories, second-party and third-party video games, and Xbox Live subscriptions; surface devices and accessories; and Microsoft PC accessories. Its phone hardware segment offers Lumia smartphones and other non-Lumia phones. Its D&C segment provides Windows Store, Xbox Live transactions, and Windows phone store; search advertising; display advertising; Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal; first-party video games; and other consumer products and services as well as operating retail stores. Microsoft’s commercial licensing segments license server products, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Windows Embedded; Windows operating system; Microsoft Office for business, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and related CALs; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions; and Skype. Its commercial segment offers enterprise services, including premier support services and Microsoft consulting services; commercial cloud comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure; and other commercial products and online services. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as online.

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Learn more about Microsoft
Size
181,000 employees
Market Cap
$1,762.4 billion
Industry
Net Income
$51.3 billion
Founded
1975
5 Year Trend
+15.5%
Revenue
$153.2 billion
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