Overview

The Microsoft 365 Copilot Reasoning Science team is looking for a Senior Applied Scientist to help us realize the full potential of “Business Chat”, the fastest-growing product in Microsoft’s history that combines the power of AI with user data in the Microsoft Graph, Microsoft 365 apps, and the web to turn words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet. We are responsible for the heart of the product, driving the quality and techniques of the orchestration layer that understands and fulfills a user’s requests.

The ideal candidate is a self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, high-visibility environment, and is passionate about user experience, iteration speed, scale, and engineering culture. As an Applied Scientist on the team, you will get an opportunity to impact the lives and work of hundreds of millions of users, work with frontier models and post-training pipelines, and collaborate closely with teams across the company, including Microsoft Research, Azure, and MAI.

The team is part of MSAI (Microsoft Search, Assistant, and Intelligence), an organization that brings together talent in the areas of LLMs (Large Language Models), recommender systems, machine learning, information retrieval, software engineering, and responsible AI. This role is flexible in that you will be able to partner with your manager to define the way that you’d like to work, whether in the office or from home.

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 and managing experiments from inception to shipment, creating the requisite metrics, ML pipelines, algorithms. Owning problems end-to-end and being willing to pick up whatever knowledge you’re missing to get the job done.
Influencing senior leadership and partner teams through quality written and oral summaries of work in progress and experimentation results.
Building tools to accelerate your own (and your teammates’) workflows, but only when off-the-shelf solutions won’t do.
Contributing to strategic planning and long-term technical roadmaps, incorporating latest research to meet business goals.
Contributing to the growth and development of the team’s engineers and applied scientists. Identifying new research talent to join Microsoft and collaborating with the academic community to develop the recruiting pipeline.
Supporting and developing a thriving applied science culture within MSAI to encourage experimentation, scientific process, and innovation.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor'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 Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
- OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 1+ year(s) related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
- 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 thereafter.

Preferred Qualifications:

Master'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 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.
3+ years experience creating publications (e.g., patents, libraries, peer-reviewed academic papers).
3+ year(s) building and maintaining production machine learning systems at internet scale.
1+ year(s) experience in working with multidisciplinary, geo-distributed team.
Demonstrated experience owning end-to-end machine learning and software projects, including gathering requirements and feedback, collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders, producing technical designs, shipping to production, and iterating on systems post-launch.
Ability to thrive in dynamic environments, especially where priorities may shift and project definitions evolve.
Proficiency in Python and LLM prompting.

Applied Sciences IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $158,400 - $258,000 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.