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Principal AI Network Architect

Microsoft· Hardware Engineering
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Redmond, WA, Mountain View, CA, Austin, TX, Raleigh, NC, Hillsboro, OR$142.8k - $274.8kFull-timePosted 4w ago

About the role

Microsoft SCHIE seeks a Principal AI Network Architect to define long-term architecture and technology roadmap for Microsoft's AI scale-up networking systems, architect next-generation scale-up switches, and lead end-to-end AI infrastructure networking initiatives within Microsoft’s cloud hardware organization.

Responsibilities

  • Define the long-term architecture and technology roadmap for Microsoft's AI scale-up networking systems.
  • Architect next-generation scale-up switches, including system architecture, switch topology, ASIC selection, radix planning, electrical and optical interconnect strategies.
  • Define network architectures for AI clusters, racks, pods, and multi-rack scale-up domains.
  • Drive architecture tradeoff analysis across performance, scalability, reliability, power, cost, serviceability, and operational efficiency.
  • Define scale-up network requirements based on AI training, inference, and emerging workload demands.
  • Lead architecture studies for switch silicon, optics, interconnect technologies, control planes, and AI fabrics.
  • Define switch system requirements, architecture specifications, and design guidelines for future Microsoft AI platforms.
  • Drive architecture decisions for scale-up and scale-out networks, including topology, oversubscription, resiliency, fault tolerance, and workload placement optimization.
  • Partner with system, silicon, optics, software, firmware, and operations teams to co-design end-to-end AI infrastructure solutions.
  • Develop performance, capacity, reliability, and TCO models to evaluate architecture alternatives and guide investment decisions.
  • Evaluate emerging networking technologies and influence industry roadmaps across switch silicon, optics, and networking ecosystems.
  • Provide technical direction and architectural guidance to switch development teams, ODM/JDM partners, and platform engineering organizations.

Qualifications

  • Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years technical engineering experience OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience

Skills

Required:AI scale-up networking architecturesSwitch architecture and design
Nice to have:Ethernet, RDMA/RoCE, SONiC, control plane architectures
Last updated Sep 24, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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