Do you want to be at the forefront of innovating the latest hardware designs to propel Microsoft’s cloud growth? Are you seeking a unique career opportunity that combines technical capabilities, cross-team collaboration, with business insight and strategy?
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees, we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to achieve our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond. In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.
Join the Systems Pathfinding and Architecture (SPARC) team within Microsoft’s Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure (AHSI) organization, the team behind Microsoft’s expanding Cloud Infrastructure and for powering Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” mission. Microsoft delivers more than 200 online services to more than one billion individuals worldwide, and AHSI is the team behind our expanding cloud infrastructure. We deliver the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's cloud businesses including Microsoft Azure, Bing, MSN, Office 365, OneDrive, Skype, Teams and Xbox Live.
We are seeking a passionate Principal AI System Architect to join the team. In this role you will own and define the system architecture requirements; it is a broad role with the ability to make a direct impact on Microsoft AI accelerator systems.
Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees, we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.
Responsibilities
- Define AI rack- and cluster-scale architecture across accelerator, host, network, memory, storage, power, cooling, and datacenter constraints. Make quantitative tradeoffs across performance and TCO.
- Develop functional proof-of-concepts to evaluate and de-risk new capabilities
- Write and own high-level product requirements and specifications
- Drive alignment across cross-functional engineering and leadership teams. Own the outcomes.
- Use performance simulations and hardware models for what-if studies to evaluate and choose between architecture options.
- Industry influence: Participate in industry consortiums to shape standards, and influence vendor roadmaps.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 9+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 11+ 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
- Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 12+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 15+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience
- Experience in large scale AI datacenter systems and their network
- Demonstrated expertise in one or more of these domains: networking (RoCE, Infiniband transports, congestion control, network topology design), reliability and serviceability, datacenter architecture for large scale AI systems
- Experience owning hardware system architecture at scale – machine, rack row and cluster, authoring specifications and requirements
- Ability to make decision trade-offs across domains
- Deep expertise in AI systems or a key domain such as networking, reliability, power management
- Skilled in partnering and influencing architects, hardware engineers, and software leads
- Ability to manage through ambiguity, bringing clarity to establish direction and driving decisions
- Collaboration skills, teamwork, and sense of presumed responsibility
Hardware Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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.
Skills Required
- Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field and 9+ years of technical engineering experience; or bachelor's degree in a related field and 11+ years of experience; or equivalent experience.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including the Microsoft Cloud Background Check.
- Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field and 8+ years of technical engineering experience; or master's degree and 12+ years; or bachelor's degree and 15+ years; or equivalent experience.
- Experience in large-scale AI datacenter systems and networking.
- Expertise in networking, including RoCE, InfiniBand transports, congestion control, or network topology design; reliability and serviceability; or large-scale AI datacenter architecture.
- Experience owning hardware system architecture at machine, rack-row, and cluster scale, including authoring specifications and requirements.
- Ability to make tradeoffs across technical domains and demonstrate deep expertise in AI systems or networking, reliability, or power management.
- Experience partnering with and influencing architects, hardware engineers, and software leads.
- Ability to manage ambiguity, establish direction, drive decisions, and collaborate effectively.
Microsoft Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Microsoft and has not been reviewed or approved by Microsoft.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is presented as broadly competitive overall, with clear role/level/location variation and an emphasis on using posted ranges and band information for apples-to-apples comparisons.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are described as a standout, highlighted by a strong 401(k) match structure and immediate vesting, plus additional plan features for tax-advantaged saving.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-oriented benefits are portrayed as a meaningful strength, with substantial paid parental leave and added supports like back-up care and adoption/surrogacy assistance.
Microsoft Insights
What We Do
At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world.
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