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.

The LEAP team is seeking a Principal Hardware Architect – Optical Technologies with a focus on driving the adoption of emerging optical technologies into AI-centric datacenters. The candidate is expected to evaluate alternative interconnect technologies and identify innovative ways of applying them to new systems architectures. Technologies in scope include SerDes and die-to-die electrical interfaces, optical transceivers, optical integration into Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) packages, optical circuit switches, lasers etc. The candidate may extend existing methodologies that account for System Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), loss budget, power and reliability to include proposed optical components and drive Proof-of-Concept definitions to create line-of-sight to deployment.

Success in this role requires:

• 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 and software engineering teams to land promising solutions in Azure data centers.

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

• Identify optical technologies, quantify their value and prioritize them for future datacenter usages.

• Recommend a product intercept strategy based on conducting comprehensive trade-off analysis of optical technology options.

• Propose Proof of Concept (POC) / prototyping frameworks for the rigorous evaluation of optical technologies.

• Engage with optical technology vendors and conduct detailed analysis of competing technologies.

• Educate / disseminate technology directions to Microsoft’s internal stakeholders on optical foundations and fundamental directions.

• Represent Microsoft’s directions to industry and academia through leading conferences.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's Degree in Optical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 12+ years of technical engineering experience

• Master's Degree in Optical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 10+ years of technical engineering experience

• Doctorate Degree in Optical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 7+ years of technical engineering experience

• OR equivalent experience.

• Familiarity with datacenter-class optical module technologies such as Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable Octal Small Form Factor Pluggable (QSFP)/(OSFP) form factor pluggable modules or emerging Near-Packaged Optics (NPO) or Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) approaches.

• Experience in architecting optical transceivers for target metrics such as physical dimensions, power (or energy efficiency), bandwidth density, temperature sensitivity, Bit Error Rate (BER) and failure rates.

• Expertise with optical transceiver ingredients such as Electronic Integrated Circuit (EIC), Photonics Integrated Circuit (PIC), drivers, Trans-Impedance Amplifier (TIAs), photo-detectors, modulators and lasers.

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:

• A background in computer and systems architecture with exposure to AI or HPC systems with an understanding of scale-up and scale-out requirements is highly desired.

• Skilled in partnering and influencing architects, hardware engineers, software leads and executives.

• Ability to manage through ambiguity, bringing clarity and results orientation to engage and energize collaborators and stakeholders.

• 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.

Optical Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $161,600 - $286,200 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 $209,600 - $314,400 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

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until December 19, 2024.

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. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .