Microsoft
Principal AI Network Technical Lead
$143K–$304K
Redmond, WA +4 · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Nov 3, 2026
- Location
- Redmond, WA
Mountain View, CA
Austin, TX
Hillsboro, OR
Raleigh, NC - Experience
- 7+ years with a relevant Master's Degree; 8+ years with a relevant Bachelor's Degree; or equivalent experience. Preferred qualifications include 10+ years in specified areas.
- Education
- Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field; or Bachelor's Degree in those fields or related field; or equivalent experience.
About the job
Leads the development, qualification, deployment, and ongoing support of Microsoft’s AI scale-up switches and networking platforms.
What you'll do
- Own switch hardware development and lead bring-up, validation, integration, qualification, and production readiness.
- Set network switch requirements and technical decisions; lead vendor selection and supplier engagement.
- Lead cross-functional teams and optimize switch integration and systems for performance, reliability, serviceability, manufacturability, power, cost, and delivery.
What they ask for
- Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years technical engineering experience; OR Bachelor's Degree in one of those fields or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience; OR equivalent experience.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including the Microsoft Cloud Background Check.
- Provide proof of citizenship, U.S. permanent residency, or other protected status to assess eligibility for access to export-controlled information.
Nice to have
- 10+ years of experience in networking, AI infrastructure, or large-scale system architecture; or 10+ years of relevant system-level design and/or implementation experience across the hardware development lifecycle.
- Experience delivering AI/GPU systems to production, developing high-performance switches or AI fabrics, and leading hardware development through production.
Pay
USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year (base pay); USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year (base pay)
Tools
ASICs, SerDes, SONiC, OCI, XPO, CPO, RDMA/RoCE, PAM4
AI focus
Develops and deploys AI scale-up switch platforms and networking for AI workloads and clusters.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative