Microsoft
Principal Firmware Debug & Dev Engineer
$143K–$304K
Hillsboro, OR +4 · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Nov 2, 2026
- Location
- Hillsboro, OR
Redmond, WA
Austin, TX
Raleigh, NC
Mountain View, CA - Experience
- Required: 3+ years with a doctorate, 6+ years with a master's degree, or 8+ years with a bachelor's degree, or equivalent experience. Preferred: 12+ years, or the stated degree-and-experience alternatives (10+ years bachelor's, 7+ years master's, or 5+ years doctorate).
- Education
- Doctorate, master's, or bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field; or equivalent experience.
About the job
Leads firmware debug and development for server, silicon, and rack infrastructure, driving investigations and reliability improvements from hardware bring-up through fleet deployment.
What you'll do
- Lead cross-functional investigations across firmware, silicon, boards, operating systems, drivers, and fleet infrastructure; determine root causes and corrective actions.
- Guide firmware architecture and implementation to improve diagnostics, error reporting, crash capture, recovery, and reliability.
- Develop fleet-scale diagnostic and AI-assisted analysis practices, and mentor engineers while influencing cross-team priorities.
What they ask for
- Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- Technical engineering experience: 3+ years with a doctorate, 6+ years with a master's degree, or 8+ years with a bachelor's degree.
- Meet required Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including the Microsoft Cloud Background Check.
- Provide citizenship or qualifying residency/protected-status documentation for export-control eligibility assessment.
Nice to have
- 12+ years of technical engineering experience, or the stated degree-and-experience alternatives.
- Experience in system/silicon debug, firmware development in C or C++, validation automation, platform bring-up, diagnostics, telemetry analysis, and AI-assisted failure analysis.
Pay
USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year (base salary); USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year (base salary)
Tools
C, C++, Python, KQL, SQL, PCIe, OS/RTOS
AI focus
Leads AI data-science-assisted debugging and applies AI-assisted diagnostics to fleet failure analysis, evaluating accuracy, false positives, engineering usefulness, and data-handling controls.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative