Principal, Azure Hardware Deployment - Growth Mindset - CSI / Azure - Cloud Server Infrastructure Microsoft
Redmond, WA

Job Description

At Microsoft, our cloud services' infrastructure supports more than 1 billion customers and 20 million businesses around the world every day. We opened our first data center in 1989 and since then we have invested over $15 billion in our cloud infrastructure to support the growing customer demand for our cloud services.

Do you want to be at the center of the next largest IT industry? Are you looking to enhance your expertise and grow within a dynamic team of world-leading cloud professionals? If so, then you are looking in the right place!

The CSI team within Azure is responsible for delivering leading edge hardware that sets the standard in the industry for performance, reliability, and availability for our global customer base. We are looking for an experienced leader to transform our hardware delivery and deployment process as we move to hardware as a service for our customers.

Skills & Qualifications:

* Bachelor's required, MS desired
* Experience with lean, six sigma, agile or equivalent operational excellence frameworks highly desirable
* 7+ years' experience managing engineers and data-scientists with demonstrated ability to lead in a highly collaborative team
* 7+ years' of hands-on experience (testing, validation, design and development or sustaining) with x86 Industry Standard Server or related products from OEMs or ODM Partners is a plus.
* 5+ years hands on Programming skills with C, C++ or C# and scripting skills with PowerShell, Python or Perl is essential.
* 5+ years' experience supporting both internal and, ideally, external customers
* Demonstrates an understanding of business risks, and influences project deliverable decisions across the profession by identifying appropriate cross-organizational compromises.

Microsoft is a highly innovative company that collaborates across disciplines to produce cutting edge cloud technology that changes our world. The Cloud Server Infrastructure (CSI) team in Microsoft's Azure C+E division is responsible for delivering server infrastructure for Microsoft's online services. The hardware for operating these services (over 200 and counting), comprises of hundreds of thousands of servers spread globally and applications that reach hundreds of millions of users every day. Our customer-base is growing rapidly, our infrastructure investments are multiplying, and the size of our global infrastructure is increasing by the day - along with the scale of our challenges. Learn more about our team and projects here Azure Hardware Infrastructure

CSIL

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.

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. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. 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.

Specifics of the role:

* Architect a strategy to measure quality and identify issues as part of release qualification of hardware produced by CSI
* Implement the new Qualidation pipeline (the execution engine and staff that physically moves hardware thru validation) and refine this process through a learning mindset
* Support a unified telemetry approach that transforms the test framework into a data-science problem by seamlessly unifying CSI validation, SI scale testing, and EG ramp testing in the DC
* Close the loop with DC, Networking, Compute and Storage so that the full behavior and characterization of hardware is understood - we do not want gaps in tests relative to production use cases, or gaps in density due to new DC layout, etc.
* Drive the Qualidation methodology upstream to building blocks and commodities by using data to define corners
* Consistently handoff new products to Sustaining with zero ramp issues
* Refine and optimize test times while demonstrating health and quality
* Apply lean techniques to ensure that quality and deployment are complimentary
* Develop systems that adapt to rapid changes in commodities and components
* Build and lead a team of engineers to create a workflow system that, in partnership with an automation team, uses telemetry and monitoring to effectively drive outstanding quality at the hardware level.
* Automation and ecosystem partnership are the tools that this team uses to drive consistency and then agility. Build in capacity and capability to effectively respond to competitive forces, technology shifts, and market dynamics so that hardware remains on the leading edge of the market.
* Develop expertise breaking hardware early by defining risks, finding failure corners, and effectively characterizing system performance. Partner across CSI to drive root cause fixes so that programs launch with clearly measured health.
* Engage with partners and customers to continuously innovate and iterate the end to end process so that validation is key to delivering an outstanding customer experience.

Part of developing hardware is determining how a combination of hardware ingredients will perform under various software configurations and workloads. Understanding what type of hardware to create is therefore interrelated with understanding the software and workloads. In many cases an existing hardware portfolio makes the most sense allowing for simplification and improving manageability. In other cases, the workload and customer requirements introduce new requirements which may require expanding the portfolio. It is a science and art to understand the capabilities of hardware and the software and its workflows. It is art to simplify the construction of hardware as well as the portfolios of machines to make a system as efficient and manageable as possible.

An effective leader in this role listens to customers, can translate their requirements and identify the key problems they have and the capabilities they are looking for while also understanding how it fits into the overall business objectives Building a feedback loop to create a continuous learning and improvement of the process is essential to long term success. Architecting a system should be framed to create long term consistency while allowing adaptability and flexibility on day to day activities. An effective leader should be able to identify and communicate risk as well as identify and communicate opportunities to help shape the areas of investments in the system including funding and staffing.