Principal Applied Scientist

How would you like to do the AI research and directly affect the lives of billions of humans? Would you like to be responsible for models and code running across tens of thousands of machines across datacenters around the world? What if you could multiply your impact by making developers around the world better? If you like building highly motivated and productive teams, we have got interesting opportunities for you. 

Our team focuses on strategic workloads like M365 Copilot App, Outlook, Teams, Copilot Extensibility, and all productivity applications in M365.  The team obsesses about powering workloads with AI and innovates on next generation engineering infrastructure, tooling using AI. This provides every engineer with exceptional opportunities for rich learning, end-to-end ownership, autonomy, innovation and professional growth.  

Our team of Principal Applied Scientists is chartered to tackle a wide variety of challenges, from building data ingestion to curating data to fine tuning prompts and models.  The scientists focus on evaluation metrics to make purpose-built SLMs to infuse AI in productivity scenarios. Every member of this team is expected to collaborate with other teams across Microsoft that are building AI platforms, models and products. She is expected to lead the feature crews with a growth mindset for embracing and extending the rapidly evolving innovations and breakthroughs in this field.   

Microsoft is committed to Responsible AI and digital safety for all. Every member of the team is expected to work through these frameworks to preserve our commitment to responsible AI while innovating rapidly. She needs to be self-driven, proactive, results-oriented and ready to work with minimal ongoing direction to succeed in this environment of rapid changes and building products from grounds up.  

 The M365 org plays a pivotal role in powering end user experiences (copilots and beyond) powered by highly relevant search capability leveraging M365 eco system. 

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond. 

Responsibilities

• You will master a broad area or research and understand any applicable research techniques. You’ll also serve as a team expert on changes in industry trends, products, and other advances, and apply this knowledge to influence product needs.
• You will review business and product requirement, incorporate research, and provide strategic direction for problem solving. You’ll also ensure scientific rigor, support the development of methods, and apply your expertise to support business impact.
• You will identify and inspire peers and new research talent to join Microsoft, build relationships, and advocate for research initiatives. You’ll share research findings through industry outreach, collaborate with the academic community, and help develop the recruiting pipeline.
• You will document work and experimentation results and share findings to promote innovation. You’ll provide guidance when capturing processes and contribute to ethics and privacy policies related to research processes and data collection.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 6+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of working in an AI research facility or working with software services / experiences infused with AI.  
• Strong customer focus and passion for doing the right thing for the customer. 
• Proven ability to establish trusted, effective relationships across diverse sets of stakeholders. 
• Excellent communication skills and cross group collaboration. 
• Ability to keep pace with rapid innovations in the field and to be creative to solve problems with no past techniques. 
• Experience in developing / working with highly scalable classifiers, ranking algorithms, SL. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD with Computer Science with Data Science focus, Mathematics, Statistics, or related field AND 3+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)     
• Master’s degree with Computer Science with Data Science focus, Mathematics, Statistics, or related field AND 5+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)  
  • OR Bachelor’s degree with Computer Science with Data Science focus, Mathematics, Statistics, or related field AND 8+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)  
  • OR equivalent experience.  

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. 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.