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The **Senior Applied Scientist** , Office AI, is a leadership role at the intersection of applied machine learning, large language models, and multi-modal intelligence. This position drives transformative AI solutions across Microsoft 365, empowering users to work, create, and communicate naturally through digital pen, voice, visual, and text-based interfaces.

By integrating deep technical expertise with platform-scale innovation, the role advances both the foundational AI platform and natural user interaction capabilities, shaping the future of productivity for hundreds of millions of users.

You will join a collaborative organization that focuses on intelligent agents, on-device AI, and next-generation multi-modal intelligence, which powers Copilot experiences in M365 Copilot, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and beyond. Close partnerships with engineering, product, Microsoft Research, and cross-functional stakeholders are central to delivering seamless multi-modal and AI-driven capabilities at scale. The team values inclusivity, growth mindset, and a culture that fosters innovation and impact.

As a Senior Applied Scientist in Office AI, you will help define the next era of natural, multimodal productivity for users worldwide. You will work in an environment that values innovation, inclusivity, and real-world impact—collaborating with world-class teams to deliver life-changing AI experiences at scale. If you are passionate about advancing the frontiers of AI and shaping how people interact with technology, we invite you to join our mission.

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

+ Responsible for end-to-end development, deployment, and continuous improvement of advanced multimodal ML/LLM systems—including dataset curation, labeling strategy, model architecture, scalable training, and rigorous evaluation (offline and online).

+ Research, design, and implement on-device and cloud-based AI models, optimizing for low latency, privacy, and resilience in both connected and constrained environments.

+ Drive complex orchestration of Copilot workflows and agent pipelines, blending prompt engineering, tool invocation, and context grounding for productivity scenarios.

+ Collaborate with engineering and product teams to define success metrics, design and execute experiments (e.g., A/B testing), monitor user signals, and iterate on deployed features.

+ Advance the state-of-the-art through applied research, prototyping new concepts in ink, voice, vision, and LLM-based agents, and translating breakthroughs into scalable, user-centric product features.

+ Apply Microsoft’s Security and Responsible AI principles throughout the ML lifecycle, ensuring robust data governance, fairness, transparency, and ethical AI practices.

+ Mentor and influence peers, set technical direction, foster a collaborative and inclusive culture, and contribute to team talent development.

+ Stay current with research and industry trends, identifying opportunities to integrate emerging technologies and methods into the Office AI ecosystem.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

+ Bachelor's Degree in 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 Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)

+ OR Doctorate in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 1+ year(s) related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)

+ OR equivalent experience.

+ 2+ years of experience in coding in Python and modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch (or equivalent).

+ 1+ year of experience training and/or fine-tuning large language, vision-language, or diffusion models (e.g., GPT, DeepSeek-R1, Stable Diffusion, Phi-V, Qwen, Llama)

+ OR Prompt Engineering

Preferred Qualifications:

+ Advanced degree (Masteror PhD) in Computer Science, Math, Statistics, or related areas with industry experience or research publication in LLMs, ML, or NLP.

+ Hands-on experience orchestrating LLM-based agent pipelines - prompt design, tool invocation, and context grounding - for productivity scenarios, alongside other advanced ML techniques.

+ Proven expertise and background in designing and implementing AI models that serve millions of users in scaled production environments.

+ Demonstrated success moving applied research into shipped product features, with clear ownership of the end-to-end ML lifecycle—data collection, cleaning, modeling, evaluation, and continuous improvement.

+ Experience in designing, evaluating, and iterating on multimodal or agent-based workflows for real-world productivity applications.

+ Deep understanding of transformer-based architectures and hands-on experience with model optimization techniques (quantization, pruning, distillation, adapter tuning).

+ Strong leadership, mentoring, and cross-functional influence skills; ability to attract and develop talent while fostering a collaborative team environment.

+ Customer-obsessed mentality and passion for translating research breakthroughs into meaningful product impact.

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

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until July 21st, 2025.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .