Principal Silicon Engineer - Networking

Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team behind Microsoft's expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft's "Intelligent Cloud" mission. SCHIE delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Teams, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform globally with our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for passionate, high-energy engineers to help achieve that mission.

Are you seeking an opportunity to work on delivering silicon solutions that have a planet-scale impact? The Data Processing Unit (DPU) team within the Azure Hardware Systems & Infrastructure group is seeking a Principal Silicon Engineer. You will join our front-end silicon team and be responsible for delivering cutting-edge, high performance, low power, scalable and programmable DPU silicon., As a Principal Silicon Engineer in the Data Processing Unit team, you will be responsible for front end Micro-architecture and RTL implementation of networking accelerator modules to solve complex problems in a datacenter. You will interact with the software team to co-develop programmable design implementation, verification, and modeling strategies. This position is expected to be highly visible and impactful. The vast breadth of domains required to build our DPU silicon gives the perfect opportunity to experience different areas of expertise. The depth required to solve complex engineering problems utilizes your experience and provides you with the perfect platform to shine and grow to the next stage in your career.

• Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience

• OR Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience

• OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience

• OR equivalent experience.

Other Qualifications:

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.

This role will require access to information that is controlled for export under export control regulations, potentially under the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations or Export Administration Regulations, the EU Dual Use Regulation, and/or other export control regulations. As a condition of employment, the successful candidate will be required to provide either proof of their country of citizenship or proof of their US. residency or other protected status (e.g., under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)) for assessment of eligibility to access the export-controlled information. To meet this legal requirement, and as a condition of employment, the successful candidate's citizenship will be verified with a valid passport. Lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees may verify status using other documents, where applicable.

Preferred Qualifications:

• BS and/or MS in Electrical Engineering or equivalent degree

• 15+ years of Design verification and/or architecture experience

• Knowledge of Ethernet, RDMA, TCP/IP, MAC/PCS, Packet forwarding, P4 pipelines and data path Networking blocks

• Track record with the definition and development of complex SoCs. In depth understanding of processors and peripheral interconnect bus protocols and architectures

• Complex subsystem verification experience that involve multiple complex design modules

• Understanding of low power microarchitecture techniques. Strong knowledge of Verilog, System Verilog, UVM, C++, Python and Perl

• Technical team management experience is plus

• Hands on experience with VSCODE or Cursor IDEs, well versed with use of AI agents as an assist in coding and debugging.

Silicon Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Microsoft is a global technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We develop, license, and support a wide range of software products, services, and devices that help individuals and businesses realize their full potential.

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As we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2025, we continue to look forward—investing in AI, cloud, and quantum computing to shape the future of work, education, and society at large scale.