Senior Researcher and Principal Researcher (Multiple positions) - Excel Agent Team

Microsoft • Redmond, WA

6d

About The Position

Excel is the world’s leading platform for working with data. From finance and science to operations and marketing, customers use Excel to drive decisions that shape products, policies, and performance at global scale. Agent Mode in Excel takes that value further by enabling an intelligent spreadsheet agent that can plan, reason, iterate, and validate outcomes directly in a workbook, building refreshable, auditable results across tables, formulas, pivot tables, charts, and more.
We’re seeking researchers working on Generative AI to join our team in Redmond and help us invent and ship the next wave of agentic AI for productivity. You’ll work at the intersection of LLMs, AI agents, evaluation, and human-agent interaction, turning your research contributions into experiences used by millions of Excel customers.
Learn more:
Building Agent Mode in Excel
Vibe working: Introducing Agent Mode and Office Agent
PROSE - Microsoft Research: Publications
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

• Doctorate in relevant field OR Master's Degree in relevant field AND 3+ years related research experience OR Bachelor's Degree in relevant field AND 4+ years related research experience 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 relevant field AND 3+ years related research experience OR Master's Degree in relevant field AND 4+ years related research experience OR Bachelor's Degree in relevant field AND 6+ years related research experience OR equivalent experience.
• 5+ publications in top-tier machine learning, programming language, software engineering, human-computer interactions or relevant venues (e.g. AAAI, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, EMNLP, NAACL, ACL, POPL, PLDI, OOPSLA, ICSE, FSE, CHI, UIST, and comparable).
• Ability to develop an original research agenda, demonstrated by leading at least one publication in a top-tier machine learning, programming language, software engineering, HCI or relevant venue.
• 5+ years of prior research experience in machine learning, programming language, software engineering, or human-computer interaction.
• Experience publishing academic papers as a lead author or essential contributor.
• Experience working with large language models.
• Experience training transformer-based models, including data collection and curation, for research projects in both industrial and academic settings.
• Experience designing and implementing AI systems or production-grade systems at scale.
• Proficient in building interactive AI systems.
• Interested in applying machine learning to spreadsheet tasks.

Responsibilities

• Design and carry out innovative AI research in collaboration with other researchers, engineers, and PMs.
• Work with engineers and PMs to deploy your research to customers.
• Publish in top-tier academic venues and interact with the broader academic community.
• Embody our Culture and Values

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree