Principal Data Scientist

Microsoft•Washington, DC

3d•$142,800 - $304,200

About The Position

Microsoft Cloud Operations and Innovation (CO+I) is responsible for cloud operations. Within CO+I, the Fill-Up Colo organization maximizes use of available colocation capacity while maintaining deployment readiness and disciplined governance across Microsoft's global datacenter portfolio. The Principal Data Scientist will define and lead the analytics strategy, executive reporting, governance, and AI innovation supporting the organization's FY27 goal of packing 480 MW of capacity. The role owns OKR and program reporting products, including the 480 MW and deployed-power heatmaps, MW Fill Rate, Colo Tracker, and locked-reservation alerting. The successful candidate will establish trusted metrics, connect fragmented planning and execution signals, identify systemic opportunities, and provide decision intelligence for senior leadership. This role has global scope and requires cross-organizational leadership across capacity planning, engineering, deployment, finance, operations, and product teams. It is a full-time Microsoft employee position requiring authoritative metric ownership, sustained strategic accountability, access to business-critical context, and deep institutional and datacenter domain expertise.

Requirements

Doctorate in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or a related field and 3+ years of data-science experience; or a master's degree in one of these fields and 5+ years of data-science experience; or a bachelor's degree in one of these fields and 7+ years of data-science experience; or equivalent experience.
3+ years of people-management experience.
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire or transfer and every two years thereafter.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in data science, computer science, statistics, engineering, operations research, or a related field and 10+ years of data science, analytics, data engineering, or related experience, or equivalent experience.
Master's degree or doctorate in data science, computer science, statistics, engineering, operations research, or a related field.
7+ years of experience with SQL and analytical programming using Python, R, or a comparable language.
5+ years of experience leading complex, cross-functional data or analytics programs from strategy through production adoption.
Experience owning executive metrics, OKRs, governance, forecasting, or decision-support systems for large-scale operational programs.
Experience influencing senior leaders and establishing alignment across organizations with competing priorities and ambiguous ownership.
Deep experience in datacenter capacity planning, network and power infrastructure, hardware deployment, colocation operations, or cloud infrastructure.
Experience with Microsoft analytics technologies such as Azure Data Explorer/Kusto, Power BI, Fabric, Azure Databricks, or Azure Machine Learning.
Experience designing predictive, prescriptive, optimization, anomaly-detection, or generative AI solutions for operational decision-making.
Demonstrated success establishing enterprise metric governance, data contracts, lineage, and trusted executive reporting.
Demonstrated record of technical leadership, organizational influence, mentoring, and translating strategy into measurable business outcomes.

Responsibilities

Define the analytics vision, operating model, and multi-year roadmap for Fill-Up Colo OKR and program reporting.
Own the authoritative measurement framework for the FY27 480 MW goal, including metric definitions, targets, attribution, forecasts, and executive narratives.
Lead development and governance of 480 MW and deployed-power heatmaps, MW Fill Rate, Colo Tracker, and locked-reservation alerting.
Establish data contracts, lineage, quality controls, reconciliation standards, and decision rights across capacity, power, network, reservation, deployment, and financial data.
Identify portfolio-level risks and opportunities, quantify business impact, and drive decisions with senior leadership and partner organizations.
Design predictive, prescriptive, and AI-assisted solutions that improve capacity placement, reservation management, anomaly detection, forecasting, and operational responsiveness.
Set technical standards for scalable data products, semantic models, experimentation, performance, reliability, and responsible AI.
Lead complex cross-functional initiatives where requirements, ownership, and source-system definitions are ambiguous or evolving.
Communicate strategy, progress, tradeoffs, and recommendations through concise executive reporting and business reviews.
Provide technical direction and mentorship to data scientists, analysts, and engineers, raising the organization's analytical maturity.
Embody our Culture and Values.