This role pays less than
63%
of similar roles. Most pay
$136,668–$205,625
— the shaded band above.
At the midpoint, this role pays about
$152k
versus about
$171k
for comparable roles.
Based on 240 similar postings.
Employer
About Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a global technology leader producing software, hardware, and cloud services including Windows, Office 365, Azure cloud platform, Xbox gaming, and Surface devices. Industry: Software & Cloud Computing
Microsoft currently has
598 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 586 roles with salary data.
The Firmware Engineer joins the Host Services team within Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering to develop and maintain firmware and driver solutions for custom silicon platforms, including MAIA and COBALT. This role involves managing the full product lifecycle from architecture and design through silicon bring-up, validation, and manufacturing. The engineer will build key components such as driver interfaces, system libraries for SoC bring-up, low-level hardware protocols, and platform features to optimize cloud infrastructure. Required technical skills include proficiency in C, C++, and Rust, along with experience in UEFI, ARM Trusted Firmware, and industry-standard protocols like PCIe, I2C, SPI, USB, and UART. The role focuses on solving complex hardware-software integration challenges to enable new silicon capabilities and accelerate feature deployment across the Azure fleet for large-scale cloud infrastructure.
What does a Firmware Engineer earn?
Median $202800 from 35 postings across 9 companies.
Develop and maintain firmware and driver solutions for Microsoft custom silicon platforms like MAIA and COBALT.
Manage all phases of the product lifecycle from architecture and design through silicon bring-up and manufacturing.
Design key firmware components including driver interfaces, system libraries, and low-level hardware protocols.
Participate in technical design reviews to ensure scalable and high-performance solutions for cloud infrastructure.
Drive hardware-software integration to enable new silicon capabilities and accelerate feature deployment across the Azure fleet.
Collaborate with silicon and board electrical teams to deliver new platform capabilities.
Partner with operating system and software teams to integrate new technologies across the Azure fleet.
What we're looking for
Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field and 1+ year of technical engineering experience.
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field and 2+ years of technical engineering experience.
2+ years of experience designing and developing firmware solutions including UEFI and ARM Trusted Firmware (ARM-TF).
2+ years of experience developing high-quality production software in C, C++, and Rust.
2+ years of experience with industry-standard interfaces and protocols such as PCIe, I2C, SPI, USB, and UART.
Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check every two years.
Experience with ARM64 SoCs, Armv8 architecture, boot flows, and system initialization is preferred.
Familiarity with AI-driven software engineering practices and AI-assisted development tools is preferred.
C
ARM Assembly
Embedded Systems
real time systems
multi threading
Multiprocessor Programming
I2C
SPI
MDIO
Linux
Windows
Visual C
Firmware
Middleware
Debugging