Overview
Do you want to help build innovative tools that empower AI Agents to achieve their full potential? Are you passionate about pushing the boundaries of what AI can do? Does the thought of being able to influence the product through predictive insights & recommendations excite you? If so, we would like to hear from you! The future of work is being redefined with AI agents. Microsoft is leading this transformation with M365, Copilot Studio, and Azure AI Foundry. As a Principal Applied Scientist in Microsoft’s Business and Industry Copilots group, your core mission will be to deliver exciting innovation in Microsoft Copilot. We are looking for candidates who are creative, self-driven, curious, people-oriented and comfortable defining a path through ambiguity towards high-level goals. The successful applicant(s) will collaborate closely with people across Microsoft’s product teams and Microsoft Research to see their ideas realized in products and services that are used worldwide, as well as to contribute back to the scientific community and beyond (e.g. via presentations, publications, media interviews, and similar). 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

Defining, leading, and helping to conduct research projects that simultaneously advance the state-of-the-art and directly benefit Microsoft’s core productivity products.  
Collaborating and coordinating with people in a range of roles, including researchers, engineers, product managers, designers, and other key product stakeholders. Serving as a bridge between research and product.   
Teaching, guiding, and tutoring colleagues without research backgrounds in state-of-the-art techniques and research best practices.  
Many of the things you will try should lead to unexpected outcomes. You must be comfortable learning from experience, developing new hypotheses, and iterating.   
Sharing your research with others via a range of means, including publication, to enable others to build on your work and to contribute to the understanding of our products as cutting-edge and science driven.  
Effectively communicating with product leaders (and often MSR researchers) throughout the planning and execution of applied research projects, which often involves learning and teaching complex concepts.

Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND extensive years of 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 proven years of experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND proven years of related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
OR equivalent experience.
Extensive years of experience developing and deploying AI/ML products or systems at multiple points in the product cycle from ideation to shipping
Proven years of experience with transformer-based models (e.g., GPT, Llama)
Ability to apply research, preferring the large-scale application of new ideas over theory and prototypes.
Demonstrated collaboration and communication skills, both within-team and cross-team, and experience working through problems in ambiguous environments adapting to new research challenges as technology develops.

Preferred Qualifications

Proficiency in Python for data science workflows, leveraging libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, scikit-learn, Matplotlib, and Jupyter for data analysis, experimentation, and rapid prototyping
Exposure to Deep Neural Network training and inference and experience in one or more deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, etc.).
Experience with Agent based architectures, frameworks and technologies (such as MCP, A2A protocol, Langchain, Azure AI Foundry)
Experienced in web application development frameworks, such as React
Experience delivering a Cloud SaaS product on Azure, AWS or GCP
A record of publication in top-tier scientific venues (ongoing or in the recent past) (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, NAACL, EMNLP, KDD, WWW, CHI, PNAS, Nature)

Other Requirements

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. 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. #BICJOBS

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.