Senior AI Applied Scientist

As a Senior Artificial Intelligence Applied Scientist on the Business & Industry Copilot Foundations team, you will help drive Microsoft's mission by developing and integrating advanced AI technologies into products and services. You'll work with product, research, and engineering teams to create innovative solutions, using your machine learning and data science expertise to solve complex challenges and shape both product direction and customer experience.  

We are in an era of unprecedented innovation and openness. As Microsoft continues to lead in AI, we are seeking individuals to help tackle some of the most exciting and meaningful challenges in the field. Our vision is to build a truly open architecture platform that enables users to summon tailored AI solutions to drive real-world outcomes.   

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

• Build collaborative relationships with product and business groups to deliver AI-driven impact . 
• Research and implement state-of-the-art using foundation models, prompt engineering, RAG, graphs, multi-solutions architectures, as well as classical machine learning techniques.   
• Fine-tune foundation models using domain-specific datasets.  Evaluate model behavior on relevance, bias, hallucination, and response quality via offline evaluations, shadow experiments, online experiments, and ROI analysis.   
• Build rapid AI solution prototypes, contribute to production deployment of these solutions, debug production code, support MLOps/AIOps.   Contribute to papers, patents, and conference presentations. Translate research into production-ready solutions and measure their impact through A/B testing and telemetry that address customer needs.    
• Ability to use data to identify gaps in AI quality, uncover insights and implement PoCs to show proof of concepts.   

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)
• 1+ years of experience with generative AI OR LLM/ML algorithms   
• 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)
• 3+ years experience creating publications (e.g., patents, libraries, peer-reviewed academic papers).Experience presenting at conferences or other events in the outside research/industry community as an invited speaker.
• 3+ years experience conducting research as part of a research program (in academic or industry settings).
• 1+ year(s) experience developing and deploying live production systems, as part of a product team.
• 1+ year(s) experience developing and deploying products or systems at multiple points in the product cycle from ideation to shipping.
• 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.

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 September 22nd, 2025.  

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.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or 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.