Senior Applied Scientist
Microsoft
Microsoft is a company where passionate innovators come to collaborate, envision what can be and take their careers to levels they cannot achieve anywhere else. This is a world of more possibilities, more innovation, more openness in a cloud-enabled world. The Business & Industry Copilots group is a rapidly growing organization that is responsible for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite of products, Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, AI Builder, Microsoft Industry Solution and more. Microsoft is considered one of the leaders in Software as a Service in the world of business applications and this organization is at the heart of how business applications are designed and delivered.
It is an incredible time for AI initiatives at Microsoft. We're pushing the boundaries of AI and Machine Learning across multiple domains to advance Microsoft’s ambitious AI goals. Microsoft Copilot Studio is our comprehensive agent building platform that lets its customers create conversational and autonomous agents using natural language or a graphical interface. Copilot Studio makes it simple to design, test, and deploy solutions tailored to its customers’ industry, company, department, or role, whether they need agents for internal or external use cases.
We are looking for a seasoned Senior Applied Scientist to contribute to the development and integration of cutting-edge AI technologies into Microsoft Copilot Studio, ensuring they are inclusive, ethical, and impactful.
You will collaborate across product, design, research and engineering teams to bring innovative solutions to life, applying your expertise in machine learning, data science, and software engineering to solve complex problems. Your work will directly influence product quality and customer experiences. This role will combine machine learning and AI knowledge with software engineering expertise, while demonstrating a growth mindset and customer empathy.
You will play a crucial role in developing the Copilot Studio Applied Science and Research team’s direction in machine learning, Generative AI model fine-tuning, Agent creation and deployment, AI evaluation and scaling. Join us in shaping the future of AI agents.
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
- Design, implement and experiment with AI architectures for improving LLM inference systems. This includes design patterns pertaining, but not limited to, RAG, Context Engineering, Multi-Agent architectures, tooldesignetc.
- Develop robust evaluation frameworks to assess model performance,monitormodel behavior, conduct systematic benchmarking, and addressidentifiedweaknesses while ensuring compliance with customer standards.
- Build andmaintaininternal tools to streamline model fine-tuning and evaluation workflows and automate repetitive tasks within secure development environments.
- Implement machine learning algorithms, large-scale model fine-tuning, especially with closed and open source LLMs, SLMs, multimodal or task-specific models tohelp evaluate multi-agent LLM systemsand deliver measurable product and customer impact.
- Provide deep subject matterexpertisein AI subfields (e.g., deep learning, Generative AI, NLP, muti-modal models, reinforcement learning) to help translatecutting-edgeresearch into practical, real-world solutions that drive product innovation and business impact.
- Demonstrate deep understanding of small and large language models (SLMs and LLMs) architecture and optimization techniques to adapt out-of-the-box solutions toparticular businessproblems.
- Prepare and analyze data for machine learning, identifying optimal features and addressing data gaps.
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 qualification:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Physics, Mathematics or related field AND 6+ years of experience in AI/ML, predictive analytics, software engineering or research
- OR Master’s degree AND 4+ years of relevant experience
- OR PhD AND 3+ year of relevant experience
- OR equivalent experience.
- Experience with MLOps Workflows, including CI/CD, monitoring, and retraining pipelines.
- Familiarity with modern LLMOps frameworks (e.g., LangChain, PromptFlow).
- Familiar with AI coding assistant, AI IDE, Agentic coding assistant such as GitHub Copilot, and Cursor.
- 3+ years of experience conducting applied AI research in academic or industry settings.
- 3+ year of experience developing and deploying live production systems or AI services.
- 2+ years of experience developing evaluation systems for Generative AI or large-scale deep learning models and ML stacks.
- Experience across the product lifecycle from ideation to shipping.
#BICJobs
#MCSJobs
#CopilotStudio
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.