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Principal Platform Power & Performance Engineer

Microsoft· Hardware Engineering
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Redmond, WA, Hillsboro, OR$142.8k - $274.8kfull-timePosted 3w ago

About the role

Microsoft SCHIE is seeking a Principal Platform Power & Performance Engineer to shape the power and performance architecture of Azure Compute and AI infrastructure, specializing in end-to-end power/performance characterization across silicon, servers, firmware, OS, accelerators, workloads, and datacenter infrastructure.

Responsibilities

  • Own end-to-end power and performance characterization of next-generation Azure compute platforms, from silicon and server bring-up through workload-level validation.
  • Analyze the interaction between CPU/GPU utilization, memory, PCIe/I/O, firmware, OS power management, thermals, cooling, and workload behavior.
  • Identify opportunities to improve: Performance per watt; Idle and low-utilization efficiency; Energy proportionality; Rack power efficiency and density; Workload throughput within platform power constraints.
  • Develop and evaluate dynamic power/performance-management strategies across idle, partially utilized, and fully loaded systems.
  • Profile representative cloud and AI workloads to understand where energy is consumed and determine which system-level optimizations deliver meaningful efficiency improvements.
  • Partner closely with silicon vendors, OEM/ODM partners, firmware teams, OS engineers, Azure Compute and AI infrastructure teams, and datacenter engineering teams to drive improvements from concept through production.
  • Influence silicon features, BIOS/firmware policies, OS power management, platform controls, thermal strategies, and future hardware architecture using measured engineering data.
  • Build telemetry and analysis methodologies that connect low-level platform behavior with workload performance and infrastructure-level efficiency.
  • Diagnose complex cross-layer performance and power issues spanning hardware, firmware, kernel/OS, drivers, accelerators, and workloads.
  • Translate engineering findings into recommendations that can influence fleet efficiency, capacity utilization, power provisioning, infrastructure cost, and future platform roadmaps.
  • Provide technical leadership across multiple platform programs, define methodology and strategy, and drive ambiguous cross-organizational problems from investigation to deployment.

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:Power and performance characterizationSystem-level optimizationTelemetry and data analysisCross-layer debuggingCommunication and leadership

Benefits

  • This description references company-wide benefits and pay information available at the Microsoft careers site and does not enumerate specific benefits in the job description itself.
Last updated Oct 1, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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