Microsoft

Principal Applied Scientist

Microsoft • $165K — $296K *
Redmond, WA 98052In-Person
Consumer Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field and 8+ years of related experience or equivalent OR a Master's Degree and 6+ years OR a Doctorate with 5+ years
  • 6+ years of hands-on experience coding in Python, C++, C#, C, or Java
  • 6+ years of industry experience in Machine Learning techniques
  • Experience in building large scale Machine Learning systems for search and recommendations
  • Research background in LLM and NLP
  • Ability to tackle unsolved problems and innovate solutions

Responsibilities

  • Lead multiple initiatives leveraging expertise in Machine Learning and AI technologies
  • Translate business requirements into actionable research insights to meet strategic goals
  • Support the development of team members and strengthen academic collaborations
  • Design and implement methods for improving large language models' alignment and reasoning
  • Develop retrieval, ranking, and relevance systems integrated with LLM capabilities
  • Create accurate RAG pipelines to enhance information retrieval and generate user-aligned responses
  • Run experiments and collaborate for deploying scalable model improvements

Benefits

  • Opportunity to advance in a cutting-edge technology environment
  • Collaboration with multidisciplinary teams to shape future technologies
  • Access to a culture promoting innovation and continuous learning
  • Potential for professional growth through mentoring and academic engagement
Full Job Description
Overview

Core Search and AI team (Bing) is looking for people who want to build the next generation of search using advanced AI technologies, especially large language models, at scale. We are responsible for the largest machine learning models at Microsoft by volume and take pride in being the first in the world to solve many practical AI at Scale challenges. Our work spans a very large scope of scenarios including delivering high quality search results from a massive document corpus, query and document understanding, retrieval and reranking model for search results optimization, as well as AI search grounding, etc.

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Principal Applied Scientist with solid machine learning expertise and can adopt state-of-art AI technologies to improve the relevance for the next generation of search.

Responsibilities
  • You will lead one or more big initiatives leveraging your expertise across a broad research landscape, including advanced research methodologies and applied techniques. You'll gain deep knowledge of a service, platform, or domain, and drive product opportunities by sharing emerging industry trends and applied technologies.
  • You will review business requirements and incorporate research insights to meet strategic goals. You'll provide directions on the types of data and machine learning model strategies needed to solve complex problems and apply deep subject-matter expertise to drive measurable business impact.
  • You will support the onboarding of new team members and help develop academic collaborators into effective contributors within multidisciplinary teams. You'll identify promising research talent, engage with the academic community, and strengthen Microsoft's long-term recruiting pipeline.
  • You will advance LLM post-training and alignment techniques by designing, implementing, and evaluating novel methods that improve reasoning quality, safety, controllability, and factual grounding across large-scale models.
  • You will drive and develop next-generation search capabilities by building and optimizing retrieval, ranking, and relevance systems that integrate deeply with LLM-powered experiences.
  • You will architect and refine RAG pipelines that enhance retrieval fidelity, reduce hallucinations, and deliver more context-aware, user-aligned responses in production environments.
  • You will translate research into production by running experiments, analyzing results, and collaborating with engineering partners to deploy scalable, reliable model improvements.
  • You will drive scientific rigor through hypothesis-driven experimentation, reproducible methodologies, and clear documentation of findings, insights, and model behaviors.
  • You will drive collaborate across disciplines-including research, engineering, product, and design-to shape long-term strategy for search, alignment, and retrieval-augmented systems.
  • You will contribute to a culture of innovation by sharing learnings, mentoring peers, and participating in internal research discussions, reviews, and technical deep dives.


Qualifications

Required Qualifications:
  • Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 8+ 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 6+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
    • OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 5+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
    • OR equivalent experience.


Preferred Qualifications:
  • Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 12+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
    • OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
    • OR equivalent experience.
  • 6+ years of experience coding in Python, C++, C#, C or Java.
  • 6+ year of industry experience applying Machine Learning techniques.
  • Experience building and improving large scale Machine Learning system for search, ads, and recommendation, adopting LLM.
  • Research background on Machine Learning, LLM and NLP.
  • Proficient problem solver: ability to identify and solve problems that the world has not solved before.


#MicrosoftAI #CoreSearchAS

Applied Sciences IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

About Microsoft

Microsoft is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services. Microsoft’s devices and consumer (D&C) licensing segment licenses the Windows operating system and related software, Microsoft Office for consumers, and the Windows Phone operating system. The company’s computing and gaming hardware segment provides Xbox gaming and entertainment consoles and accessories, second-party and third-party video games, and Xbox Live subscriptions; surface devices and accessories; and Microsoft PC accessories. Its phone hardware segment offers Lumia smartphones and other non-Lumia phones. Its D&C segment provides Windows Store, Xbox Live transactions, and Windows phone store; search advertising; display advertising; Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal; first-party video games; and other consumer products and services as well as operating retail stores. Microsoft’s commercial licensing segments license server products, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Windows Embedded; Windows operating system; Microsoft Office for business, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and related CALs; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions; and Skype. Its commercial segment offers enterprise services, including premier support services and Microsoft consulting services; commercial cloud comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure; and other commercial products and online services. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as online.

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Learn more about Microsoft
Size
181,000 employees
Market Cap
$1,762.4 billion
Industry
Enterprise Technology
Net Income
$51.3 billion
Founded
1975
5 Year Trend
+15.5%
Revenue
$153.2 billion
NASDAQ
MSFT
* Ladders Estimates

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