Principal Lab Architect

<b>Overview</b><br><div><p>Microsoft Silicon, Cloud Hardware, and Infrastructure Engineering (SCHIE) is the team behind Microsoft’s expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” mission. SCHIE delivers the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Teams, OneDrive, and the Microsoft Azure platform globally with our server and data center infrastructure, security and compliance, operations, globalization, and manageability solutions. Our focus is on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide and we are looking for passionate engineers to help achieve that mission. </p></div><div><p>As Microsoft's cloud business continues to grow the ability to deploy new offerings and hardware infrastructure on time, in high volume with high quality and lowest cost is of paramount importance. To achieve this goal, the CHSE (Cloud Hardware Systems Engineering) team is instrumental in defining and delivering operational measures of success for hardware manufacturing, improving the planning process, quality, delivery, scale and sustainability related to Microsoft cloud hardware. We are looking for experienced engineers with a dedicated passion for customer focused solutions, insight and industry knowledge to envision and implement future technical solutions that will manage and optimize the Cloud infrastructure.  </p></div><div><p>We are looking for a Principal Lab Architect based in Taiwan to define how ODM engineering and lab capabilities integrate with Microsoft’s global cloud-hardware development and validation ecosystem. You will establish technical architectures, interface standards, readiness criteria, and cross-site design patterns for product bring-up, validation, and qualification. Join a growing team helping scale the Azure Cloud at Microsoft. </p></div><div><p>#SCHIE #CHSE #azurehwjobs </p></div><br><br><b>Responsibilities</b><br><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Own the Taiwan-based architecture that integrates ODM engineering and lab capabilities with Microsoft’s global cloud-hardware lab network, improving bring-up, validation, qualification, and deployment readiness across sites.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Engage ODM, Microsoft engineering, and lab teams early to translate product architecture, deployment plans, validation scope, schedules, and dependencies into clear cross-site lab requirements.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Define the target-state architecture for integrating ODM capabilities across Microsoft’s international lab network. Identify capability and interface gaps, establish technical standards, and recommend investment priorities.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Serve as the architect for Taiwan and international lab stakeholders, making cross-domain technical decisions, resolving design conflicts, and documenting tradeoffs and recommendations.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Define reusable reference architectures, interface requirements, readiness criteria, and technical-handoff standards for cloud-hardware bring-up, validation, and qualification.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Lead recurring architecture reviews with ODM, Taiwan, U.S., and international lab stakeholders to evaluate future demand, technical risks, capability gaps, cross-site dependencies, and investment decisions.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Use capacity, infrastructure, equipment, service, and support-demand data from local teams to identify network-level constraints and recommend architecture investments, workload placement, and risk mitigations.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Incorporate safety, ESD, security, access control, asset custody, and data-handling requirements into cross-site architectures; identify systemic gaps while local lab leaders own site implementation and remediation.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Create and maintain reusable architecture artifacts, including capability and interface maps, reference designs, architecture decision records, and ownership boundaries for the international lab network.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Translate Taiwan and ODM technical insights into concise architecture recommendations and decision materials for U.S. and international engineering and lab leaders.</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Embody our</span><span> </span><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/corporate-values" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span>Culture</span><span> </span></a><span>and</span><span> </span><a href="https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/culture%22%20/o%20%22https:/careers.microsoft.com/us/en/culture%22%20/t%20%22_blank" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span>Values</span></a><span> </span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><div><ul style="list-style-type:disc"><li><p><span>Performs related duties as assigned</span><span> </span></p></li></ul></div><br><br><b>Qualifications</b><br><div><p>Required Qualifications:  </p></div><div><ul><li style="text-align: left;">Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND  7+ years technical engineering experience OR  Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field  AND  8+ years technical engineering experience OR equivalent experience  </li><li style="text-align: left;">Industry experience in hardware product development, systems engineering, or engineering-lab architecture, with responsibility for taking hardware from design through validation or production readiness.</li><li style="text-align: left;">Demonstrated understanding of end-to-end hardware development and the architecture decisions required across design, prototype builds, system bring-up, validation, qualification, and production readiness.</li><li style="text-align: left;">Hands-on experience architecting hardware solutions with ODM engineering teams, including defining technical interfaces, reviewing system designs, establishing validation approaches, or resolving cross-domain issues. </li></ul></div><div><p> Preferred Qualifications:   </p></div><div><ul><li>Experience designing engineering-lab capabilities across multiple sites or across ODM and customer environments, such as capability and interface models, infrastructure requirements, technical handoffs, or reference designs for bring-up and validation.</li><li>Experience leading technical architecture across regions and coordinating with ODMs and multiple engineering or operational disciplines, such as hardware engineering, lab operations, facilities, network, security, sourcing, or logistics.</li><li>Proven ability to evaluate architecture risks and tradeoffs, establish decision criteria and ownership, and resolve cross-domain hardware or lab-design conflicts.</li><li>Demonstrated ability to explain technical tradeoffs, influence stakeholders without direct authority, and translate Taiwan or regional insights into decisions for global teams.</li><li>Demonstrated ability to work independently and convert ambiguous product or lab needs into clear requirements, target-state architectures, interface definitions, and practical implementation guidance.</li><li>Ability to document and communicate cross-site architecture decisions through clear artifacts such as capability maps, reference architectures, risk assessments, architecture decision records, or executive recommendations.</li><li>Working knowledge of cloud-hardware lab requirements, with depth in one or more relevant areas such as server or rack systems, networking, power and cooling, or AI and compute platforms.</li><li>Proficiency with tools for technical documentation, architecture communication, planning, and work tracking, such as Microsoft 365, Visio, Azure DevOps, or equivalent tools.</li></ul><p>Candidates must be able to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements that are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to, the following specialized security screenings:</p><div><p>Microsoft Cloud Background Check - This position requires passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.</p></div><p><br> </p></div> <br><p>This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.</p><br><hr><br><p>Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about <a href="https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html"><b><u>requesting accommodations.</u></b></a></p>