Senior Applied Scientist

We are looking for a Senior Applied Scientist to help shape the future of Microsoft 365 Copilot, with a focus on Search, Chat and Agent experiences.  This role sits within the Microsoft Search, Assistant, and Intelligence (MSAI) organization, which powers the intelligence behind M365 Copilot by combining cutting-edge advances in generative AI with personalized search and recommendation systems. As a Senior Applied Scientist in MSAI, you will work in an exciting and fast-paced, collaborative environment.

You will partner closely with engineering and product teams to innovate, design and evaluate end-to-end AI solutions that serve millions of enterprise users. This is a high-impact role where you will influence technical strategy, shape product direction, and collaborate across Microsoft to deliver AI-powered experiences that help users accomplish more with less effort.

You'll join a fast-paced, collaborative environment that brings together talent from across Microsoft—including Microsoft Research—to push the boundaries of what's possible with Large Language Models (LLMs), reasoning systems, real-time orchestration platforms and modern personalized search and recommender systems.

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.

• Advance the science: Design and run experiments, define and validate metrics, and develop ML pipelines and models in areas like reinforcement learning, reasoning and Chain-of-Thought (CoT) optimization, Search, Recommender Systems and LLMs—all while upholding best practices in Responsible AI and Privacy-Preserving ML.
• Drive product innovation: Partner with Engineering, PM, and Design to translate product vision and industry trends into scalable, reliable, and agile architecture.
• Collaborate across Microsoft: Work closely with Microsoft Research, Azure, AI platform teams, and product groups to bring cutting-edge AI into real-world applications.
• Champion customer impact: Engage with customers and internal teams to deeply understand pain points and drive improvements that matter.
• Lead and mentor: Provide technical leadership to junior scientists and engineers, and scale your learnings across the broader product group.
• Define success: Establish and evolve success metrics that reflect platform and product growth.
• Stay ahead: Keep up with the latest research and foster a thriving applied science culture. Publishing is encouraged, though not required.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 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 related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Experience in SFT (Supervised Fine Tuning) and/or RL (reinforcement learning) modeling experience and/or proven experience of shipping search or recommender systems at scale.
• Proficient years of Python coding skill.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Statistics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND proficient years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR Doctorate in Statistics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering or related field AND  related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Experience designing and implementing agentic AI models and systems.

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.

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