Research Scientist - Economist

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

22h • $102,100 - $219,200 • Onsite

About The Position

This position is in the Office of the Chief Economist at Microsoft’s Seattle-area headquarters, within Monetization and Business Planning. The group values both excellence in academic research and internal impact, offering economists an opportunity to conduct academic research with real-world impact.

Research economists work with the Corporate Vice President and Chief Economist, Michael Schwarz, and a team of economists and data scientists on high-impact projects in a supportive research environment. Research areas include advertising effectiveness, media economics, market design, electricity, cloud marketplaces, search auctions, optimal pricing contracts, retail product competition, scalable and structural demand estimation, machine learning for prediction and causal inference, optimal capacity investment, economics of subscriptions, and applied theory. Successful candidates are expected to develop their own research agenda and collaborate with the broader team. Candidates with backgrounds in empirical industrial organization, applied microeconomics, econometrics, and quantitative marketing have historically done well.

Requirements

• Master's degree in a relevant field and at least 1 year of related economic research experience, or bachelor's degree in a relevant field and at least 2 years of related economic research experience, or equivalent experience.
• Proficiency in R or Python, including common data manipulation tools such as dplyr, pandas, or polars, as well as graphing and causal inference tools.
• Knowledge of standard econometric methods for small-data settings, such as difference-in-differences, matching, and synthetic control, and big-data settings, such as double machine learning.
• Experience publishing academic papers as a lead author or essential contributor.
• Experience participating in a top conference in a relevant research domain.

Nice To Haves

• Doctorate in a relevant field, or a master's degree in a relevant field and at least 3 years of related research experience, or a bachelor's degree in a relevant field and at least 5 years of related research experience, or equivalent experience.
• Experience with Spark or other tools for processing big data.
• Experience developing custom empirical models and methods for pricing and/or market design.
• Background in empirical industrial organization, applied microeconomics, econometrics, or quantitative marketing.

Responsibilities

• Conduct economic research on high-impact projects alongside economists and data scientists.
• Drive an independent research agenda while contributing to the broader team’s work.
• Develop and apply empirical research, econometric, and data science methods to relevant research topics.

What This Job Offers

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