Software Engineer II

Microsoft’s Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) organization is the backbone of our expanding cloud infrastructure, powering the company’s “Intelligent Cloud” vision. SCHIE delivers the foundational technologies and infrastructure that support over 200 Microsoft services—including Azure, Office 365, Xbox Live, Teams, OneDrive, Bing, and more. From data center architecture to security, compliance, and global operations, SCHIE is committed to smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide.

As part of this mission, the Azure Software/Firmware Center of Excellence is seeking passionate engineers to join the System Software Engineering Team. This team plays a critical role in enabling innovative hardware solutions through robust, performant, and scalable system software. We are looking for engineers who are excited to work at the intersection of software and firmware, and who thrive in solving complex challenges that directly impact the performance and reliability of Azure’s infrastructure.

In this role, you will:

• Develop and optimize device drivers and software services that interact with the device on both Windows and Linux platforms.
• Collaborate with silicon, hardware, and platform teams to bring up new hardware and ensure seamless integration.
• Leverage AI and automation to improve development workflows, fleet management, and quality assurance.
• Provide technical leadership and contribute to engineering excellence across the organization.

If you’re passionate about systems programming, hardware-software co-design, and building the future of cloud infrastructure, we invite you to join us in SCHIE and help shape the next generation of Microsoft’s cloud platform.

Responsibilities

About the Role

The Azure Hardware System Infrastructure (AHSI) team is looking for a highly motivated and experienced Software Development Engineer II (SDE II) to join our mission of building robust, high-performance system software. This role is ideal for engineers with 3+ years of experience in system software development and a passion for solving complex problems at the intersection of hardware and software.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and maintain system-level software components, including device drivers and multithreaded services for Windows and/or Linux platforms.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including hardware, firmware, and platform teams to define and deliver integrated solutions.
• Drive code quality through rigorous testing, code reviews, and continuous integration practices.
• Investigate and resolve complex system-level issues, including performance bottlenecks, concurrency bugs, and hardware-software integration challenges.

Qualifications

 

• Required:
• 3+ years of experience in system software development, including device driver development on Windows or Linux.
• Strong proficiency in C and/or C++ with a deep understanding of memory management, concurrency, and performance optimization.
• Experience with multithreaded programming and synchronization primitives.
• Familiarity with kernel-mode and user-mode interactions, debugging tools (e.g., WinDbg, GDB), and hardware interfaces.
• Experince with windows or Linux or both kernel mode driver development experience (PCIe expertise would be bonus) . should also include debugging expertise (windbg/gdb)

 

• Preferred:
• Experience working with SoC platforms, PCIe, or other hardware interfaces.
• Exposure to secure coding practices and system-level security concepts.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks like Boost.
• Experience in scripting languages like Python, Bash.
• Contributions to open-source or internal platform libraries and tools.

 

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

 

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.