Senior Firmware Engineer

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 and we are looking for passionate engineers 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.

First Party Silicon Firmware Team (1PSFW) team is looking for a talented Senior Firmware Engineer who has experience working on ARM systems. The role specifically would be to work primarily on writing the firmware for the embedded controllers that exist as part of a larger SoC system, these embedded controller firmware includes features such as power management, subsystem initialization (DDR - Double Data Rate RAM, mesh, Peripheral Componenet Interconnect Express - PCIe, etc.), telemetry (polling for power consumption, temperatures of various on and off die components, and any detected hardware faults/issues) as well as interrupt driven events such as hardware faults and similar. Firmware also includes communications over standard embedded buses (Inter -Intergrated Cirtuit Communications - i2c, i3c, Serial Peripheral Interconnect - SPI, Universal Asynchronous UART, etc.) between components in a larger system. A successful member of this team will understand how these communications buses are used, how to work with General Purpose Input Outpout - GPIOs, interrupts/ Interrupt Service Routine -(ISRs), use of pre-silicon (from software based simulations, FPGA implementations, and gate-level emulation systems)  and post-silicon environments, as well as familiarity with debugging low level embedded systems via ad hoc and formalized methods such as using Joint Test Action Group - (JTAG)/Lauterbach debuggers. The firmware work on upcoming versions of the product will build on existing products as well as building new code and runtime frameworks, as well as develop firmware for new hardware subsystems. Successful candidate will leverage experience primarily in C, with additional tooling in scripting languages. Additional responsibilities include creating test and automation code built in python and in frameworks such as ROBOT for test automation. The position will own significant feature areas and is able to refine requirements based on datasheets and other documentation. 

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.

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or related technical discipline AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 5 years professional experience in embedded firmware development or device driver development
• Experience developing tests for firmware or device drivers
• Experience with one or more embedded communications protocols (SPI, I2C, UART, etc.)

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. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor'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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR Master'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++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Experience with ARM architecture
• Experience with hardware debugging environments
• Experience with building firmware features based on silicon datasheets
• Experience with pre-silicon environments
• Experience with scripting languages such as Python or Power Shell
• Effective written and verbal communication & organization skills.
• Ability to work well independently and on a team. A collaborative spirit and a growth mindset.
• Customer and results oriented with attention to quality and details.
• Motivated to continuously learn and improve existing solutions.

Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $112,000 - $218,400 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 $145,800 - $238,600 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

Microsoft will accept applications and processes offers for these roles on an ongoing basis.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

• Work with hardware and other partner teams to determine system requirements
• Design firmware features to meet requirements
• Build firmware code and validation tests to deliver features
• Debug firmware defects in pre- and post- silicon environments
• Provide feedback to peers in design and code reviews
• Help maintain test and QA infrastructure
• Design, build and integrate tools to assist with deployment, monitoring and troubleshooting