Microsoft
Principal Hardware Engineer
$143K–$304K
San Diego, CA +5 · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 30, 2026
- Location
- San Diego, CA
Austin, TX
Hillsboro, OR
Mountain View, CA
Washington, DC
Aliso Viejo, CA - Experience
- 7+ years with a relevant master's degree, or 8+ years with a relevant bachelor's degree; equivalent experience is also accepted. Preferred: 8+ years in enterprise storage technologies and 5+ years leading hardware validation or qualification work.
- Education
- Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field; or bachelor's degree in one of those fields; or equivalent experience.
About the job
Leads qualification and validation of HDD, SSD, and PCIe switch devices for Azure, improving reliability, performance, security, and compatibility before fleet deployment.
What you'll do
- Develop and maintain validation strategies, test plans, procedures, and automated test suites for storage and PCIe devices.
- Analyze fleet issues and validation failures, reproduce problems, and drive coverage improvements and supplier corrective actions.
- Lead cross-functional technical work and qualification readiness for current and next-generation storage and PCIe technologies.
What they ask for
- Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field and 7+ years of technical engineering experience; or bachelor's degree in one of those fields and 8+ years; or equivalent experience.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
Nice to have
- 8+ years working with enterprise storage technologies, including HDDs, SSDs, SAS, SATA, PCIe, or NVMe devices.
- 5+ years leading hardware validation strategies, qualification programs, test methodologies, or automated test frameworks.
Pay
USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year (base salary); USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year (base salary)
Tools
HDD, SSD, PCIe Switch, SAS, SATA, NVMe, Windows/Linux, C/C++
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative