Principal Applied Science Manager

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

2d

About The Position

Microsoft is on a mission to reinvent productivity with AI, and the Copilot for Calendar initiative is at the forefront of this transformation. We are seeking a Principal Applied Science Manager to lead, grow, and inspire the applied science team that powers the next generation of AI-driven calendar experiences.
In this role, you will:
Stay at the cutting edge of generative AI and large-language models, translating breakthroughs into high-impact Calendar Copilot capabilities that leverage the Microsoft 365 Graph to deliver personalized, context-aware time-management experiences.
Define and evolve the scientific strategy and relevance metrics that measure how well Copilot features understand user intent and improve productivity across the M365 Calendar ecosystem.
Provide technical leadership on when to use fine-tuned LLMs, small language models, or specialized models, and guide your team in designing, training, and deploying these systems at enterprise scale.
Oversee the development of high-fidelity synthetic, manufactured, and customer-grounded datasets, along with rigorous evaluation sets and benchmarks that reflect real workflows of information workers.
Drive the applied-science roadmap for industry-leading calendar agents, partnering deeply with engineering, product, PM, and design teams to deliver reliable, scalable, and responsible AI at massive user scale.
Set a clear, inspirational vision for the team, aligning scientists and engineers around ambitious, measurable goals that raise the quality bar for Copilot.
Recruit, develop, and retain exceptional applied scientists and data scientists, fostering a culture of psychological safety, scientific excellence, ownership, inclusion, and continuous learning.
Empower your team with the right resources, guidance, and autonomy, removing obstacles so they can execute quickly and deliver sustained, meaningful product impact.
As a Principal Applied Science Manager, you will shape the foundations of Copilot for Calendar and build intelligent AI-powered experiences such as smart scheduling, conflict resolution, meeting preparation, time protection, day/week planning, and proactive calendar insights. If you thrive at the intersection of advanced AI research, large-scale product impact, and building high-performing teams — we would love to meet you.
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 achieve our shared goals. We build on our values — respect, integrity, and accountability — to foster a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or a related field and 10+ years of relevant experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
• OR Master’s degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or a related field and 6+ years of relevant experience
• OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or a related field and 3+ years of relevant experience
• OR Equivalent experience.
• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role.
• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or a related field and 10+ years of relevant experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
• OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or a related field and 6+ years of relevant experience
• OR Equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of experience producing scientific publications, such as patents or peer-reviewed papers.
• Hands-on experience developing and deploying large language models (LLMs), including agentic systems, supervised fine-tuning, and reinforcement learning (e.g., RLHF).
• Experience designing, implementing, and optimizing retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and advanced context-engineering strategies.
• Proficiency with modern LLM evaluation methods, including LLM-as-a-Judge, agentic evaluations, and RAG-quality assessments.
• Experience with MLOps best practices, including model versioning, automated testing, monitoring, and CI/CD for machine-learning systems.
• Experience publishing at top-tier scientific venues, such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, EMNLP, or KDD.
• Solid ability to translate complex ML concepts into business value and communicate technical insights effectively to non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead innovation with large language models (LLMs), staying at the forefront of NLP advancements including prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG).
• Drive the design and delivery of advanced ML/NLP models powering Copilot experiences in Outlook Calendar and Microsoft Teams.
• Leverage multi‑modal signals (email, meetings, documents, chat) to build intelligent, context‑aware time and productivity solutions.
• Architect and evolve supervised and unsupervised models that improve personalization, relevance, and contextual understanding across calendar scenarios.
• Own experimentation and evaluation strategy using telemetry, user feedback, and A/B testing to continuously improve quality, robustness, and customer satisfaction.
• Partner closely with engineering and product teams to integrate models into production at enterprise scale, ensuring performance, security, compliance, and reliability.
• Provide technical and scientific leadership in retrieval, embeddings, ranking systems, and evaluation for LLM‑powered applications.Build, mentor, and lead high‑performing applied science teams, fostering strong experimentation discipline, collaboration, and innovation.
• Drive cross‑functional alignment and execution, translating customer‑centric vision into measurable, durable product impact while embodying Microsoft’s culture and values.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level