Want to help fix the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book? Microsoft seeks firmware engineers

Mark Coppock

Microsoft Surface Pro 4

Every now and then, a company posts interesting jobs on their career boards that provide hints about future projects or ongoing efforts to improve technology and solve problems. Recently, Microsoft’s otherwise excellent Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book devices have received a bit of a black eye due to issues that only firmware updates can result.

It might be no coincidence, then, that Microsoft has recently posted two positions relating directly to Surface firmware. If you’re a software engineer who’s familiar with Microsoft’s programming languages and Windows architecture, then you’ll likely want to give the company’s newest postings a look. Perhaps you can fix some of the nagging problems plaguing the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, like the pesky sleep issue.

Software/Firmware Engineer II – Surface

Are you passionate about building cool devices and technologies? The Surface Team focuses on building devices that fully express the Windows vision. A fundamental part of our strategy is having desirable and powerful devices that enable the experiences people want, and elicit their excitement. Creating these devices involves a close partnership between hardware and software engineers, designers, and manufacturing. We are currently building the next generation and Surface needs you!

The Surface team is looking for a Software Development Engineer II with the intellectual horse power and experience to design & develop solutions and resolve ambiguous problems independently. You will be responsible for delivering Software Images that brings Surface to life, and the tools and automation to make the Image creation process efficient and more reliable. You will be required to interact across disciplines and teams, understand requirements and deliver solutions to successfully meet those requirements.

Are you up for the challenge? Ideal candidates for this position should have a degree in computer science or a related field with excellent software design & development experience and problem solving skills. Candidates must be able to communicate effectively and work extremely well across disciplines and teams. Applicants must have thorough understanding of the product development life cycle and gone through at least 2 product cycles end to end. Attention to detail is crucial.

Senior Software / Firmware Engineer – Surface

Are you passionate about building cool devices and technologies? The Surface Team focuses on building devices that fully express the Windows vision. A fundamental part of our strategy is having desirable and powerful devices that enable the experiences people want, and elicit their excitement. Creating these devices involves a close partnership between hardware and software engineers, designers, and manufacturing. We are currently building the next generation and Surface needs you!

Role & Opportunity: The Surface development team is seeking a talented software engineer to work on our Surface wireless product line. You will be responsible for the integration of new technologies, system bring-up/ enablement and where needed architecture changes. You will be a critical member of a team that includes firmware, electrical, software, design validation and mechanical engineers; together, you will bring Surface to life. In addition, you will be responsible for optimizing core aspects of the device that are critical to product design. You will provide leadership and technical guidance across the team.

Sounds interesting? Then head on over to the Microsoft Careers site and check out the listings. Who knows, not only might you help fix those nagging sleep issues plaguing the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, but you might help design the next generation of Surface devices as well. Sounds pretty cool to us.

Just yesterday, Microsoft released the first Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 firmware updates for 2016, but unfortunately, it did not fix many of the lingering issues owners of both devices have been facing since the devices were released. Microsoft acknowledged that some issues are still pending to be fixed and promised that they would be addressed “as quickly as possible.” Sounds like they need a little bit of help.