Impress employers and recruiters.
Choose from hundreds of resume examples.
Impress employers and recruiters.
Choose from hundreds of resume examples.
Tailor your resume to this Principal Optical Engineer role.
Rezi rewrites your resume against Microsoft's job description. Free.
Tailor your resume to this Principal Optical Engineer role.
Rezi rewrites your resume against Microsoft's job description. Free.
Don't guess if your resume is good enough.
See how it scores against the Principal Optical Engineer posting at Microsoft — free, in seconds.
Don't guess if your resume is good enough.
See how it scores against the Principal Optical Engineer posting at Microsoft — free, in seconds.
About the Role
We are seeking a Principal Optical Engineer to drive the architectural design, production roadmap, and engineering efforts for next-generation optical interconnects in hyperscale AI infrastructure. This role will serve as an architect/engineer responsible for Cloud/AI optical interconnects and rack-scale fiber management, working across various teams and external partners to bring innovative optical technologies from concept through large-scale production deployment.
Responsibilities
- Serve as a technical leader in optics and photonics, shaping the company's multi-generation roadmap for Cloud/AI interconnects and rack-scale optical infrastructure.
- Define and drive Microsoft's optical interconnect strategy for next-generation AI platforms.
- Evaluate emerging technologies and determine the optimal migration path across multiple platform generations.
- Lead architecture and product definition for rack-scale fiber management supporting AI clusters.
- Define bandwidth density, latency, reliability, power efficiency, serviceability, manufacturability, and cost targets.
- Lead development of rack-scale fiber management solutions including Fiber shuffles, Fiber connectors, and fiber cabling.
- Develop standards and best practices for large-scale deployment of optical infrastructure across AI datacenters.
- Drive supplier roadmaps to align with Microsoft's future platform requirements.
- Influence industry standards and ecosystem direction through joint development initiatives and technical forums.
- Drive architecture reviews and technical decision making across multiple organizations.
- Guide optical technologies through proof-of-concept, qualification, productization, manufacturing readiness, and fleet deployment.
- Support root-cause analysis and operational issue resolution for deployed systems.
Requirements
- 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.
- Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements.
- Required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.
Skills
- Fiber Optics including related tools, devices, processes, design, operations, or manufacturing
- Data center networking
- High-speed copper or optical interconnects
- High-speed optical transmission systems
- Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) or Near-Packaged Optics (NPO)
- Silicon Photonics
- Pluggable optics
- Advanced packaging
- Rack-scale fiber management
- AI infrastructure, GPU fabrics, InfiniBand, Ethernet, or UALink ecosystems
- Optical Engineering and Optical Engineering concepts, testing procedures, standards, tools and appropriate analysis methods
- Developing high-density fiber infrastructure, including fiber shuffle solutions, patch panels, connectors, cable assemblies, and rack-scale optical systems
- Hands-on testing and validation experience in active and passive fiber optic components and end-to-end fiber links
Location
- U.S.
Work Type
- Full-time
Experience Level
- Principal
- IC5
Education Level
- Master's Degree
- Bachelor's Degree
- Doctorate Degree
Salary/Compensations
- USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year (U.S. typical base pay range)
- USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year (San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area)
Benefits
- Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.
About the Company
- 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.
Equal Opportunity
- 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 requesting accommodations.