Principal Software Architect

All potential candidates should read through the following details of this job with care before making an application.

Do you want to be at the forefront of innovating the latest hardware and systems 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?

Join our Leading-Edge Architecture Pathfinding (LEAP) team within the Strategic Planning and Architecture (SPARC) organization in Azure Hardware Systems & Infrastructure (AHSI).

AHSI is the team behind Microsoft’s expanding cloud business, responsible for delivering the hardware systems and infrastructure for cloud computing across Microsoft Azure, Bing, MSN, Office 365, OneDrive, Skype, Teams and Xbox Live.

The SPARC organization is responsible for strategy, planning and architecture pathfinding, and manages Azure’s hardware roadmap from architecture concept through production for Microsoft’s current and future on-line services.

The LEAP team within SPARC is at the forefront of systems architecture and technology pathfinding spanning compute, memory, storage, network and system interconnects.

Drawing on deep insights of workloads, emerging technology trends, and focused industry engagements, LEAP team’s charter is to define and evaluate novel systems architecture innovations through hardware / software co-design and advance them through technical readiness for productization.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture evaluation, pathfinding, and software enabling acceleration of hardware technologies enabling infrastructure optimization, workload acceleration, and improving Azure fundamentals.
• Listening to those who operate Azure and their customers to identify current and emerging problems.
• Identifying promising technologies to address problems that are relevant for Azure business, engage with ecosystem partners, and derisking productization via capable proof-of-concepts.
• Working across organizational boundaries with roadmap planners, product architects, and hardware / software engineering teams to land promising solutions in Azure data centers.
• Collaborating closely with software principals to influence and accelerate time to solution through software support for hardware technologies in product roadmap.
• Lead team of software engineers in identifying and developing capable end to end software proof-of-concepts to evaluate novel hardware technologies for Azure usages and deployment scenarios.
• Develop and lead detailed performance analysis methodologies and tools to evaluate systems innovations and guide hardware architecture directions.
• Collaborate across domain experts on workloads, software, SoC and platform to engineer TCO-optimized solutions for Azure usages.
• Engage with Azure’s supplier ecosystem on collaborations that deliver on the above charter.
• Influence and shape hardware architecture, targeting three-to-six-year timeframe, with software analysis and prototyping driven analysis, insights and recommendations.

Qualifications

Required / Minimum Qualifications :

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, or related technical discipline AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python.
• 7+ years of experience in Windows systems software (Operating system kernel, memory management, I / O stacks, Virtualization) with demonstrated track record of success, guiding architecture and software enabling.
• 7+ years of experience leading significant hardware / software co-design projects involving Central Processing Unit and / or systems architecture and influencing technical direction.

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 :

• Deep expertise in Windows and Hypervisor technologies and internals.
• Deep expertise in CPU, memory and I / O virtualization hardware and software architecture.
• Skilled in partnering and influencing architects, hardware engineers, and software leads.
• Ability to manage through ambiguity, bringing clarity and results orientation to engage and energize collaborators and stakeholders.
• Collaboration skills, teamwork, and sense of presumed responsibility.
• Verbal and written communication skills, and ability to articulate and engage with both technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels.
• Experience leading and driving complex projects with respect and integrity, including those with multiple workstreams spanning different business and technical disciplines.
• Intellectual curiosity and passion about learning and deploying new technologies.
• Problem-solving skills, analytical capabilities, and attention to detail.

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until November 4, 2024.

SPARC #AHSI

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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.

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