The Surface Quality team is looking for a Device Validation Manager who is passionate about leading an outstanding team in charge of building and validating high quality premium devices and working with latest technologies. You will be working on the next generation of a product in the Surface Devices organization. You will be responsible for leading a team in charge of the design verification, characterization, tuning and qualification of a Surface product, including hardware and software. You will develop and perform comprehensive verification and characterization strategies and plans that bridge high-level use cases to product architecture/design to effectively and systematically reveal and screen out defects. The Device Validation Manager provides critical analysis of data and test results, and drives the right solutions, design changes, optimizations and trade-offs in the context of business priorities. On a frequent basis, you will be reviewing and auditing tests results, while also introducing and enforcing test techniques and methods to ensure robust product qualification. You are a leader and you will lead your team by getting your hands dirty and showing how things get done!

You will work in a fast-paced environment and will need to demonstrate ability to learn new technologies, make progress quickly and with the maturity to identify and fill gaps. Candidates must enjoy working collaboratively with development, program management, hardware engineers, and partner teams, including suppliers and remotely located engineers in Asia.

This is an excellent opportunity for a motivated validation engineer and manager with passion for quality and integrated experiences to thrive in a virtual and dotted-lines team environment. This person will ensure we are delivering the complete end-to-end hardware and software experiences that delight our customers. The ideal candidate would be an engineer with a Major in CS and Minor in EE, or vice-versa.

Responsibilities

• Lead quality validation efforts for a Surface product. This includes the Hardware and Software components. You and your team will be the voice of quality and customer, to assure the product has the right quality to satisfy our customers and meet the high quality standards we define for the Microsoft Surface products.
• Be responsible for all aspects of test engineering and validation of the product hardware and software features, with opportunities to stretch more broadly. This will include working closely with software and hardware developers and program managers, located in Redmond and in Asia, to create solid core designs and enable testability of the products.
• Candidate will work with external suppliers on test execution, test results verification and auditing.
• Responsible for communicating program status and quality updates to upper management and key stakeholders.
• Create and introduce innovative test techniques and methods to ensure robust PC/product qualification.
• Develop and enforce test architectures, methodologies, tools and comprehensive test plans, which will be performed by remotely located suppliers in Asia.
• Conduct technical reviews/audits throughout the development process. This would include reviews/audit of the test architectures, test plans, test cases, and test results from suppliers.
• Provide inputs or prepare content for quality status of your project. These are communicated to upper management and key stakeholders on weekly basis and on every HW/SW milestone
• Triage incoming bugs to make sure right people are working on the issues and be proactive to investigate, repro and debug problems and collaborate with project team on solutions. Provide first level investigation and repro steps to developer team for investigation.
• Review test reports and product defects identified by suppliers. Investigate and debug problems and collaborate with team on solutions for problems and defects.
• Work on new devices at various stages of hardware development including proto-type hardware.
• Identify product risk areas and mitigate them through target testing.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• BS or MS Degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering, or a related degree and equivalent experience
• 7 or more years of experience in a relevant field
• Experience with SW development for the Windows PC Platform
• Demonstrated ability to design PC Hardware and Software comprehensive validation and verification strategies with supporting documentation including test plans, procedures, and reports
• Experience in shipping software and/or hardware and having been through at least one shipping cycle
• Working knowledge of 1 or more of the following PC subsystems: PCBAs, WiFi, Bluetooth, Batteries, Networking, Audio, Camera, Display and Graphics, SSD and Storage, Touch systems, external ports like USB and DisplayPort, Thermal, Power, and UEFI
• Passionate and knowledgeable about Quality: you have what it needs to ship a high-quality Surface device
• Ability to demonstrate a strong skill-set in analytical problem solving, a history of increasing responsibilities and decision-making experience
• Ability to work independently, be self-guided and lead and motivate the other team engineers
• Excellent interpersonal skills including written and oral communications
• Excellent program management and leadership skills
• Some travel will be required to Asia as appropriate to support validation, design and build activities

Preferred Qualifications:

• Solid background and understanding in Windows and PC architecture, including driver architecture
• Experience with Windows OS Kernel
• Familiarity with Windows Drivers developing model
• Comfortable in using a Windows debugger to quickly identify and resolve issues spanning multiple subsystems
• Enthusiastic, motivated and self-driven
• High tolerance to ambiguity and ability make progress in the face of it

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.