Senior Applied Scientist

About the role

We seek a Senior Applied Scientist with expertise in Machine Learning, Generative AI, Agentic Modeling, Data Science, or related areas. The ideal candidate should be passionate about generative modeling, experimental prompt tuning, and large-scale modeling optimization, with hands-on experience working with LLMs or SLMs such as Qwen, Llama, or its variants.

Microsoft AI unites product, engineering, and science teams to advance Bing and Consumer Copilot, aiming to provide the best generative search experience through advanced AI/ML technologies and innovative AI features. 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.

Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI (MAI) employees who live within a 50-mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.

Responsibilities

• Building and owning production machine learning models to improve results.
• Working hands-on with state-of-the-art generative models like Qwen, Llama, Mistral, GPT, and others to deliver significant impact.
• Finding insights and forming hypotheses on large-scale data using machine learning, feature engineering, statistical, and data mining techniques (e.g., regression, classification, NLP, optimization).
• Professional working experience in prompt engineering with large LLMs like GPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.
• Designing experiments, understanding the resulting data, and producing actionable, trustworthy conclusions.
• Wrangling large amounts of data (think petabytes) using various tools, including open-source ones and your own. All programming languages are welcome, especially Python, C#, R, C++, Java, and SQL.
• Taking complex problems and the associated data and presenting concise answers to assist senior executives in making key business decisions.

Requirements

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor'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).
• Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research).
• Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 1+ year(s) related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research).
• Equivalent experience.

Other Requirements:

• Ability to meet Microsoft, customer, and/or government security screening requirements, including specialized security screenings such as the Microsoft Cloud Background Check (required upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master'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).
• Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research).
• Equivalent experience.
• Proficient oral and writing skills.

Pay

The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $160,200 - $261,000 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.