Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and 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, Teams, 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 hardware infrastructure on time, in high volume with high quality and lowest cost is of paramount importance. To achieve this goal, the Cloud Hardware Systems Engineering team is instrumental in defining and delivering operational measures of success for hardware manufacturing, improving the planning process, quality, delivery, scale and sustainability related to Microsoft cloud hardware. We are looking for seasoned engineers with a dedicated passion for customer focused solutions, insight and industry knowledge to envision and implement future technical solutions that will manage and optimize the Cloud infrastructure.

We are looking for a Senior Thermal Design Engineer to join the team.

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• Lead the thermal design and analysis of cloud hardware components, including servers, racks, power distribution systems, and cooling solutions form silicon/board level to L11/L12.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and system technical lead, to develop and implement thermal solutions that meet performance and reliability requirements.
• Conduct thermal simulations, modeling, and analysis to assess component and system-level thermal performance, acoustic, and optimize cooling strategies.
• Define and establish thermal design guidelines, specifications, and test plans for cloud hardware products.
• Evaluate and select appropriate cooling technologies, such as liquid cooling, air cooling, and heat sinks, to ensure efficient heat dissipation and thermal management.
• Define and review thermal architecture, thermal control policy, including air- and liquid-cooled solutions.
• Perform root cause analysis and troubleshooting of thermal issues during hardware development and deployment.
• Lead thermal validation and testing activities, including thermal chamber testing, thermal cycling, and thermal characterization, acoustic validation, wind tunnel testing, system impedance/flow rate measurement.
• Stay up-to-date with industry trends and emerging technologies related to thermal management in cloud hardware development.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior thermal engineers, fostering their professional growth and development.
• Collaborate with vendors and suppliers to assess thermal performance of off-the-shelf components and develop customized solutions as necessary.
• Support thermal sustaining activities as needed.
• Provide on-site support for critical issues at vendor factories and third-party labs.

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years related technical engineering experience
  • OR Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years related technical engineering experience
  • OR Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related technical engineering experience
  • OR Doctorate degree in Mechanical Engineering, or related field
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Extensive experience (8+ years) in thermal design and analysis for complex hardware systems, with a focus on cloud infrastructure.
• Experience with liquid component or system designs.
• Solid knowledge of acoustic analysis and noise mitigation techniques.
• Strong knowledge of heat transfer principles, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations.
• Solid understanding of cloud hardware components, architectures, and cooling technologies.
• Demonstrated experience in designing and implementing thermal solutions for high-power and high-density systems.
• Familiarity with industry standards and regulations related to thermal management in data center environments.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to identify and resolve complex thermal issues.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams and communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven leader with experience mentoring thermal engineers and leading cross‑functional technical discussions and design reviews with internal teams and suppliers.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in liquid cooling and mixed cooling designs.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Experience in advanced cooling technologies
• Proficiency in thermal modeling and simulation tools such as ANSYS, FloTHERM, FloEFD, Icepak, Macroflow or equivalent
• Experience defining thermal architecture at system or platform level.

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.

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.