Principal Applied Scientist

Microsoft

4d

About The Position

We're looking for a Principal Applied Scientist to drive innovation at the intersection of vibe coding, low code, and Copilot. You’ll lead rapid experimentation cycles, develop robust evaluation frameworks, and apply advanced techniques like reinforcement learning to enable multi-step reasoning and decision-making. You’ll collaborate across engineering, product, and partner teams to ensure agents are performant, secure, reliable, and extensible—empowering customers and partners to build on our platform. This is your opportunity to influence the next generation of AI-native business applications and deliver real-world impact at scale.

The ideal candidate has prior expertise in natural language processing (NLP), with a strong foundation in large language model (LLM) development, evaluation, and fine-tuning. They should have experience in applying advanced fine-tuning techniques—including instruction tuning, reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), and tool-augmented generation—to build agents capable of multi-step reasoning and decision-making. Familiarity with prompt engineering, context-aware orchestration, and integrating LLMs with external tools and APIs is essential. The candidate should be comfortable working in a experimentation-driven environment, leveraging both offline and online evaluation methods to iterate rapidly and optimize agent behavior. A deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in building AI-native enterprise applications will be key to success in this role.

Requirements

• Bachelor'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 Master'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 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.
• 5+ years experience creating publications (e.g., patents, libraries, peer-reviewed academic papers).
• 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.

Nice To Haves

• 2+ years experience presenting at conferences or other events in the outside research/industry community as an invited speaker.

Responsibilities

• You will master a broad area or research and understand any applicable research techniques. You’ll also serve as a team expert on changes in industry trends, products, and other advances, and apply this knowledge to influence product needs.
• You will review business and product requirement, incorporate research, and provide strategic direction for problem solving. You’ll also ensure scientific rigor, support the development of methods, and apply your expertise to support business impact.
• You will identify and inspire peers and new research talent to join Microsoft, build relationships, and advocate for research initiatives. You’ll share research findings through industry outreach, collaborate with the academic community, and help develop the recruiting pipeline.
• You will document work and experimentation results and share findings to promote innovation. You’ll provide guidance when capturing processes and contribute to ethics and privacy policies related to research processes and data collection.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees