Principal Researcher - Agentic Innovation

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

10h

About The Position

The M365 Research group at Microsoft is driving applied research and innovation efforts that reimagines how intelligent Agentic systems are built, evaluated, and deployed at enterprise scale. Our mission is to develop robust and scalable Agentic Systems that can operate reliably in complex real‑world environments, enabling step‑function advances in Human productivity.
We are seeking a Principal Researcher - Agentic Innovation to drive research and incubation efforts across Agentic systems. This role offers a unique opportunity to define long‑term research vision and translate foundational advances into durable product and business impact. The scope of this role spans foundational agentic capabilities and forward‑looking research on next‑generation AI agent architecture. The ideal candidate will combine deep technical expertise with the ability to set technical directions and drive execution across multiple time horizons.
We communicate our work through academic publications, open‑source releases, patents, and close collaboration with product and engineering teams across Microsoft. Our goal is to shape the future of AI agents while delivering meaningful impact to real‑world systems used on a global scale.
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.

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.
• 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

• Doctorate in Computer Science, Distributed Systems, Machine Learning, Statistics, or related fields AND 5+ years related research experience.
• OR Undergrad or Master's degree in these fields AND 7+ years related research experience.
• Research experience and at least five publications in top conferences/journals in one of the following areas: machine learning, NLP, distributed systems, programming languages, software engineering.
• History of cross‑disciplinary collaboration across research, product, and engineering.
• Proven experience designing and building end-to-end AI systems or production-grade systems that scale to real-world usage.

Responsibilities

• Define and own long‑term research and incubation agenda for Agentic Systems.
• Drive research for agentic systems for high‑impact enterprise use cases such as: enterprise productivity and coding agents.
• Incubate next‑generation agent architectures, including multi‑step reasoning, planning, reflection, multi‑agent collaboration, and self‑improving systems.
• Partner closely with product, engineering, and Microsoft leadership to translate research into real‑world impact.
• Publish in top-tier conferences and journals and contribute to the broader research community through open-source contributions and thought leadership.

What This Job Offers

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