Senior Applied Scientist

Overview

Come build the core of Microsoft Copilot for enterprise with Microsoft Turing Team, where you'll join a collaborative group of applied scientists and engineers pushing the frontier of large language models (LLMs) to improve the productivity of hundreds of millions of users around the world.

Our team is responsible for the core systems that power Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat delivering intelligence, quality, and transformative new features. We work at the intersection of research and engineering—advancing orchestrator reasoning, training next-generation models, and shipping impactful, model-driven experiences in Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Recent launches like Analyst Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot showcase the breadth and depth of impact you'll drive across the stack.

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

As a Senior Applied Scientist, you will:

• Evolve our orchestrator to reason more effectively, respond faster, and support new capabilities in multi-modality, agent-based systems, and beyond
• Advance the state of the art in model training—including post-training methods such as fine-tuning and reinforcement learning, high-quality data curation, and experimentation with frontier model training
• Build and deliver model-driven features from concept to production—spanning model development, evaluation, metrics, and A/B testing
• Master a broad area of research and understand any applicable research techniques. Serve as a team expert on changes in industry trends, products, and other advances, and apply this knowledge to influence product needs
• Review business and product requirements, incorporate research, and provide strategic direction for problem solving. Ensure scientific rigor, support the development of methods, and apply your expertise to support business impact
• Identify and inspire peers and new research talent to join Microsoft, build relationships, and advocate for research initiatives. Share research findings through industry outreach, collaborate with the academic community, and help develop the recruiting pipeline
• Document work and experimentation results and share findings to promote innovation. Provide guidance when capturing processes and contribute to ethics and privacy policies related to research processes and data collection

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)

Compensation

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 $160,200 - $261,000 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information at: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Application Timeline

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Equal Opportunity

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.