Overview

Core AI is at the forefront of Microsoft’s mission to redefine how software is built and experienced. We are responsible for building the foundational platforms, services, programming models, and developer experiences that power the next generation of applications using Generative AI. Our work enables developers and enterprises to harness the full potential of AI to create intelligent, adaptive, and transformative software.

The EngThrive Insights team is responsible for understanding the developer experience. Our mission is to deliver insights that enable Microsoft to be the best place to work as an engineer, where it is fast and easy to do great work.

As a Principal Data Scientist, you will partner closely with engineering and data science teams to drive insights into developer productivity. Your work will span data collection, metric research, dashboard development, and the creation of compelling, end-to-end narratives that illuminate the developer experience.

Success in this position requires a strong passion and intuition for improving the developer experience, and a vision for what an industry leading developer experience can be.

At Microsoft, our 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

Shape the Product Vision: Define and influence the product roadmap by aligning technical strategy with business goals and customer needs.

Drive Strategic Clarity: Leverage data-driven insights and competitive intelligence to inform product direction, identify opportunities, and guide decision-making.

Direct Impact: Design and implementation of dashboards, websites and other systems to deliver insights to the relevant personas.

Foster Engineering Alignment: Build consensus across engineering teams and partner organizations by driving clarity, alignment, and shared ownership of technical direction.

Build Foundational Capabilities: Contribute to and lead the development of core platform components and reusable building blocks that accelerate team velocity and product innovation.

Mentor and Grow Talent: Support the growth of engineers through mentorship, knowledge sharing, and by enabling long-term ownership of key systems.

Champion Customer-Centric Development: Engage directly with customers and product teams to capture feedback, understand demand signals, and refine product messaging—ensuring the voice of the customer shapes product evolution.

Operational Excellence: Drive operational excellence in managing and operating systems with a high bar for data quality, stability, security and privacy. Set high standards for reliability and performance.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

Doctorate in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results) OR Master's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 7+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results) OR Bachelor's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years data science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results) OR equivalent experience.

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

Preferred Qualifications:

Deep understanding of engineering infrastructure, tools, and workflows.

Proven analytics skills in research, experiments, and insights generation to solve business problems.

Proven impact in building dashboards and reports for visualizing complex systems, interactive data, critical business metrics, and other similar reports.

Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, TypeScript/JavaScript, C#, Java, or Python OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 10+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.

Experience and expertise working with data products such as Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, or similar.

Experience with data visualization technologies such as PowerBI, Tableau, Grafana, or similar.

Prior experience working as a software engineer.

Data Science IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

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.

Principal Data Scientist (CoreAI)