Data and Applied Scientist II

Microsoft’s Cloud business is expanding, and the Cloud Supply Chain (CSCP) organization is responsible for enabling the infrastructure underlying this growth including AI! CSCP’s vision is to empower customers to achieve more by delivering Cloud Capacity Differentiated at Scale. Our mission is to deliver capacity for all cloud services predictably through intelligent systems driven by continuous learning and a world class organization. The CSCP Organization is responsible for traditional supply chain functions such as Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, but also manages supportability (spares), decommissioning and disposition of Data center assets worldwide. We deliver the core infrastructure and foundational technologies for Microsoft's over 200 online businesses including Bing, MSN, Office 365, Xbox Live, Skype, OneDrive and the Microsoft Azure platform for external customers. Our infrastructure is comprised of a large global portfolio of more than 200 datacenters supporting services for more than 1 billion customers in over 90 countries worldwide.

Cloud Capacity Planning is one of the most central functions within CSCP due to its direct impact on Microsoft cloud business success. This team forecasts, plans and manages the majority of Microsoft’s cloud services and directly influences cloud user experience. This is a central function that closely partners with Engineering, Finance, Supply Chain, Data Centers, NPI and Deployment Engineering. India Center-of-Excellence (CoE) is a comparatively new team which offers capabilities to make planning processes efficient and best-in-industry by bringing expertise in areas like Supply Chain Management, Data Science, Engineering and Analytics. The team is growing very fast to get ahead of the Cloud Supply Chain demand increase and set up practices for structured long, medium and short-range planning.

Responsibilities

• Researching and developing production-grade models (forecasting, anomaly detection, optimization, clustering, etc.) for our global cloud business by using statistical and machine learning techniques.
• Manage large volumes of data, and create new and improved solutions for data collection, management, analyses, and data science model development.
•  Drive the onboarding of new data and the refinement of existing data sources through feature engineering and feature selection.
• Apply statistical concepts and cutting-edge machine learning techniques to analyse cloud demand and optimize our data science model code for distributed computing platforms and task automation.
• Work closely with other data scientists and data engineers to deploy models that drive cloud infrastructure capacity planning.
• Present analytical findings and business insights to project managers, stakeholders, and senior leadership and keep abreast of new statistical / machine learning techniques and implement them as appropriate to improve predictive performance.
• Oversees and directs the plan or forecast across the company for demand planning. Evangelizes the demand plan with other leaders.
•  Drives clarity and understanding of what is required to achieve the plan (e.g., promotions, sales resources, collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment [CPFR], budget, engineering changes) and assesses plans to mitigate potential risks and issues.
•  Oversees the analysis of data and leads the team in identifying trends, patterns, correlations, and insights to develop new forecasting models and improve existing models.
•  Oversees development of short and long term (e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly) demand forecasts and develops and publishes key forecast accuracy metrics. Analyses data to identify potential sources of forecasting error. Serves as an expert resource and leader of demand planning across the company and ensures that business drivers are incorporated into the plan (e.g., forecast, budget).
• Leads collaboration among team and leverages data to identify pockets of opportunity to apply state-of-the-art algorithms to improve a solution to a business problem. Consistently leverages knowledge of techniques to optimize analysis using algorithms.
• Modifies statistical analysis tools for evaluating Machine Learning models. Solves deep and challenging problems for circumstances such as when model predictions are not correct, when models do not match the training data or the design outcomes when the data is not clean when it is unclear which analyses to run, and when the process is ambiguous.
• Provides coaching to team members on business context, interpretation, and the implications of findings. Interprets findings and their implications for multiple businesses, and champions methodological rigour by calling attention to the limitations of knowledge wherever biases in data, methods, and analysis exist.
• Generates and leverages insights that inform future studies and reframe the research agenda. Informs both current business decisions by implementing and adapting supply-chain strategies through complex business intelligence.
•  Connects across functional teams and the broader organization outside of Demand Planning to advocate for continuous improvement and maintain best practices.
• Leads broad governance and rhythm of the business processes that ensure cross-group collaboration, discussion of key issues, and an opportunity to build proposed solutions to address current or future business needs.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• M.Sc. in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Applied Economics, Computer Science or Engineering, Data Science, Operations Research or similar applied quantitative field.
•  4-8 years of industry experience in developing production-grade statistical and machine learning code in a collaborative team environment.
• Prior experience in machine learning using R or Python (scikit / numpy / pandas / statsmodel).
• Prior experience in time series forecasting.
• Prior experience with typical data management systems and tools such as SQL.
• Knowledge and ability to work within a large-scale computing or big data context, and hands-on experience with Hadoop, Spark, DataBricks or similar.
• Excellent analytical skills: ability to understand business needs and translate them into technical solutions, including analysis specifications and models.
• Creative thinking skills with emphasis on developing innovative methods to solve hard problems under ambiguity and no obvious solutions.
• Good interpersonal and communication (verbal and written) skills, including the ability to write concise and accurate technical documentation and communicate technical ideas to non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Applied Economics, Computer Science or Engineering, Data Science, Operations Research or similar applied quantitative field.
• Experience in machine learning using R or Python (scikit / numpy / pandas / statsmodel) with skill level at or near fluency.
• Experience with deep learning models (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, CNTK) and solid knowledge of theory and practice.
• Practical and professional experience contributing to and maintaining a large code base with code versioning systems such as Git.
• Knowledge of supply chain models, operations research techniques, optimization modelling and solvers.

#cscpjobs

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter

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.

• Industry leading healthcare
• Educational resources
• Discounts on products and services
• Savings and investments
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Generous time away Giving programs
• Opportunities to network and connect.