Principal AI Hardware Architect

Do you want to be at the forefront of innovating the latest hardware designs to propel Microsoft's cloud growth? Are you seeking a unique career opportunity that combines both technical capabilities, cross team collaboration, with business insight and strategy?  

Join our Strategic Planning and Architecture (SPARC) team within Microsoft's Azure Hardware Systems & Infrastructure (AHSI) organization and be a part of the organization behind Microsoft's expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft's "Intelligent Cloud" mission.   

Microsoft delivers more than 200 online services to more than one billion individuals worldwide and AHSI is the team behind our expanding cloud infrastructure. We deliver the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's cloud businesses including Microsoft Azure, Bing, MSN, Office 365, OneDrive, Skype, Teams and Xbox Live.   

The SPARC organization manages Azure's hardware roadmap from architecture concept through production for all of Microsoft's current and future on-line services.  This role is for a highly motivated Principal AI Hardware Architect with a solid background in neural networks and hardware implementation. You will be involved with both model development, data type analysis, ML/HW co-design. 

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

• Analyse Hardware Architecture for AI workloads.

• Architecting large scale systems which support breakthrough performance AI. workloads to shape  Azure's AI infrastructure roadmap. 

• Benchmark GPUs and other AI hardware IPs. 

• Drive NN model/HW codesign.

• Understand business critical AI workloads/applications.

• Developing and analysing novel NN architectures. 

• Embody our culture (~~~) and values. (~~~)

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of technical engineering experience

• OR Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years of technical engineering experience

• OR Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 5+ years of technical engineering experience

• OR Doctorate degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years of technical engineering experience.

• 7+ years of experience in Computer Architecture or AI Systems.

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.

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Preferred/Additional Qualifications

• MS/PhD in Machine learning, Computer Architecture/Systems, Electrical Engineering, High-Performance Computing or related areas. 

• Understanding of fundamentals of AI workloads/applications.

• Knowledge of commonly used AI and HPC workloads and how they are mapped onto large scale systems.

• Hands on experience with frameworks such as Pytorch/Tensorflow/TensorRT

• Deep knowledge of CNN/transformer architecture and optimization strategies - quantization, sparsity, sharding, KV Cache, Flash Attention.

• Solid programming skills in Python/C/C++ .

Hardware Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $137,600 - $267,000 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 $180,400 - $294,000 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: ~~~

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until November 2, 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 (~~~) .