The Senior AI Performance Architect role at Microsoft focuses on shaping the next generation of AI systems within the Azure Hardware Systems and Infrastructure organization. This position involves analyzing training and inference workloads, developing analytical models, and validating performance assumptions on silicon. The role requires collaboration with various teams to guide hardware-software co-design decisions for cloud-scale AI systems. The ideal candidate will have a strong technical background and a passion for innovating hardware designs to support Microsoft's cloud growth.

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field AND 3+ years of technical engineering experience; OR Bachelor's Degree in a related field AND 5+ years of technical engineering experience; OR equivalent experience.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements.

• Analyze frontier training and inference workloads to identify key performance requirements and bottlenecks.
• Develop and improve analytical models, simulators, and data-analysis tools for AI system performance.
• Evaluate trade-offs in performance, scalability, utilization, capacity, and cost across accelerator, memory, network, and software configurations.
• Study hardware-software interactions in large-scale AI systems and translate workload insights into architecture requirements.
• Work with MSI and partner teams to evaluate hardware-software co-design options for training and inference.
• Develop and run targeted microbenchmarks on silicon to measure compute, memory, communication, kernel, and synchronization performance.
• Compare analytical model predictions with silicon and end-to-end workload measurements, identify gaps, and improve model accuracy.
• Communicate findings and recommendations through clear data visualizations, technical reports, and architecture decision materials.

• Employees at Microsoft are often offered comprehensive, “world-class” benefits—including health and mental-wellness programs, competitive pay with bonuses and stock awards, and retirement/savings options. Time-off and flexibility are common, with generous vacation and holidays, parental and caregiver leave, and flexible work schedules, alongside learning support, employee resource groups, product discounts, and matching-gifts/volunteering programs. Specific benefits can vary by region.