Hardware Network Engineer

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. 

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 an Engineer 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.  

We are looking for a Network Engineer to join the team to help shape and deliver the next generation of lab networking capabilities in Redmond. As our hardware programs become more complex, the lab network must scale to support new architectures, security requirements, specialized test environments, and fast-moving engineering needs. This role will provide technical ownership for network design, lab connectivity, segmentation, troubleshooting, and deployment readiness, partnering closely with engineering and infrastructure teams to ensure Redmond labs can support critical silicon and cloud hardware development. 

#SCHIE #CHSE #azurehwjobs 

• Own the design, deployment, and operational readiness of lab network infrastructure supporting Redmond hardware development and validation programs. 

• Develop and implement L2/L3 network topologies, VLAN segmentation, routing policies, IP address management, DHCP, DNS, PXE, and out-of-band access models for secure and scalable lab environments. 

• Lead network planning for rack, row, and lab deployments, including switch placement, port mapping, cabling standards, power/network dependencies, and handoff readiness with lab, facilities, and infrastructure partners. 

• Apply security best practices including firewall policies, segmentation, and zero-trust principles 

• Troubleshoot complex connectivity issues across prototype hardware, lab networks, and supporting services; drive root cause analysis, remediation, and prevention actions. 

• Partner with hardware engineering, security, lab operations, and infrastructure teams to translate evolving program requirements into practical network designs and deployment plans. 

• Establish monitoring, alerting, and operational health practices that improve network reliability, capacity planning, and issue detection across lab environments. 

• Drive continuous improvement in lab network operations, including standardization of configurations, documentation, change practices, asset tracking, and support workflows. 

• Coordinate vendor and third-party support for network hardware, warranty service, RMAs, and spares planning to maintain lab availability. 

• Contribute to ITSM incidents, change management, and Azure DevOps planning to ensure work is visible, prioritized, and executed with clear ownership and risk tracking. 

• Participate in an escalation/on-call rotation for critical lab network support and provide hands-on support when needed for remote access, serial console, and hardware-level troubleshooting.

Required Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years technical engineering experience 
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field AND 5+ years technical engineering experience
  • OR equivalent experience 

Preferred Qualifications:

• 6+ years of experience in network engineering or network administration roles 

• 4+ years of experience with Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking, including VLAN segmentation, routing, switching, IP address management, DHCP, and DNS.  

• 2+ years of experience troubleshooting complex connectivity issues across network devices, servers, lab systems, or hardware test environments. 

• Certified experience with Arista (ACE Specialist+), Cisco (CCNP Enterprise+), or similar data center networking platforms 

• Understanding of TCP/IP networking fundamentals 

• Knowledge of network security principles and technologies (firewalls, IDS/IPS, segmentation) 

• Experience with automation tools and scripting (Ansible, PowerShell, Python, Bash, or similar) 

• Familiarity with Linux & Windows systems and their interaction with network infrastructure 

• Experience with cloud networking (Azure, AWS, or GCP), including hybrid connectivity 

• Exposure to load balancing technologies (NGINX, HAProxy, or similar) 

• Experience supporting hardware or silicon engineering environments 

• Documentation and cross-team communication skills 

• Ability to operate effectively in high-paced, globally distributed environments