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Principal Hardware System Engineering Manager

Microsoft

Microsoft

Software Engineering, Other Engineering
United States · California, USA · Washington, USA · Mountain View, CA, USA · Redmond, WA, USA · Hillsboro, OR, USA
USD 139,900-274,800 / year
Posted on Mar 7, 2026
Overview

Microsoft is a highly innovative company that collaborates across disciplines to produce cutting edge technology that changes our world. The Azure Cloud Hardware and Infrastructure Engineering (CHIE) team is seeking a highly motivated senior hardware systems engineer to work in a team of other hardware and software developers to create systems and modules to be deployed in Microsoft’s Azure Cloud. Microsoft provides ample opportunities for developers to have an impact on products that touch the lives of millions of users daily, in a cutting-edge public cloud environment.

As a Systems Engineering Manager, you will lead a team of high performing System engineers who owns and drives system integration, Validation and debug for Azure's leading HW solutions by incorporating advanced technologies, datacenter use cases and by working across different engineering functions. Responsibilities will also include architecting and developing efficient test and debug frameworks for cutting edge technologies, building test and debug automation, partnering with leading technology providers to define test and debug strategies, driving unified and efficient test, validation and debug methodologies across product segments. This is an opportunity to leverage and grow your existing hardware design/validation experience and provide innovative E2E hardware solutions to Microsoft Cloud.

Come join this exciting and growing team through our monumental evolution of cloud hardware at Azure and Microsoft!



Responsibilities

  • Lead a team of system engineers who own and drives system integration, validation, qualification and debug for complex HW solutions based on CPU/GPU applications to achieve holistic test coverage and efficient debugging.
  • Provides technical leadership and coaches team across New Product Introduction efforts and holds accountability for the product.

  • Supports team and enables efforts to assess engineering capabilities with external partners, ensuring they meet established security best practices and standards.

  • Drives issue resolution through technical problem solving (e.g., software, quality, and hardware engineering).

  • Leads the resolution of potential security-related risks through all Product Engineering processes to support security-related objectives.

  • Collaborate with ODMs, design teams and customers to develop validation execution plans for new technologies and MSFT IP features.

  • Hands on engineering work with test engineers

  • Drive defect triaging, debugging, and resolution for cross functional issues.

  • Work with stakeholders on process improvement, data quality improvement, and cross-boundary triaging.

  • Automate review processes to improve data quality and scaling capability.

  • Mentor senior validation engineers in test plan creation, writing test cases to have holistic coverage



Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

  • Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ 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.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • 15+ years of relevant experience in server systems/platforms development and validation for enterprise or cloud market segments.
  • Minimum 10+ years of hands-on experience in server hardware validation architecture, developing test infrastructure, writing test cases, automation and executing tests

  • 5+ years of experience in technical leadership / People Management

  • Solid understanding of hardware, firmware, and OS interfaces and interdependencies, different CPU and GPU architecture and system design concepts

  • Proven technical communication skills (verbal and written) to interface with cross-functional technical leads within and/or outside of the organization.

  • Deep understanding of OTD (Observability, Testability, and Debuggability).

  • Familiar with different technology areas including but not limited to networking, power management, rack device management, remote device management

  • Experience in performance benchmarking tools such as SPEC workloads, Linpack, AI workloads

  • Experienced in defining custom HW tools for either validation or debug.

  • Experience in windows and Linux operating systems.

  • Advanced troubleshooting and debugging skills. Hands on experience in debug and measurement tools such as Logic Analyzers, Oscilloscopes, PCIe analyzers.

  • Experience in test automation development using PowerShell, python or similar frameworks

  • Experience in evaluating hardware designs, HW/FW/OS interactions, platform config trade-offs, and E2E error flows is required.

  • Experience in debugging complex system level issues related to board hardware, thermal and Firmware components is required.

  • Self-motivated individuals must be able to work collaboratively in a team environment and across internal divisions and industry (OEM, ODM), demonstrated technical leadership in driving successful product designs.



Hardware Engineering M5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $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.