Microsoft

Principal Research Engineer - Agent 365

Microsoft • $142K — $274K *
Redmond, WA 98052In-Person
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Reposted Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field with 6+ years of coding experience in languages like C, C++, Java, or Python.
  • 10+ years of applied AI/ML research and product engineering, or Master's Degree with 5 years experience, or PhD with 2 years in AI/ML.
  • Strong publication record in top venues or patents in AI/ML.
  • Experience in deploying LLMs/multimodal models and multi-agent systems at scale.
  • Familiarity with Responsible AI frameworks and bias-mitigation techniques.

Responsibilities

  • Architect and deliver AI systems spanning model development, data, and deployment.
  • Set technical direction for large programs, driving alignment across teams.
  • Integrate LLMs and multi-agent architectures into Microsoft's product ecosystem.
  • Drive original research and translate insights into shipped capabilities.
  • Build evaluation frameworks for model/system performance and experimentation.
  • Establish fairness and safety in AI systems, driving ethical standards.
  • Mentor engineers and represent the technical vision to executives and external audiences.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to lead transformative AI projects and shape industry standards.
  • Exposure to cutting-edge AI technology and collaboration with global research leaders.
  • Support for continuous personal and professional growth and development.
Full Job Description
Overview

Copilot usage is growing rapidly across Microsoft 365 and custom agent experiences, requiring scalable and resilient AI systems.

As a Principal Research Engineer at Microsoft, you will set the technical direction and lead transformative AI initiatives that shape the future of Microsoft's products and services. Operating at the intersection of research, engineering, and product strategy, you will drive innovation at scale, architecting solutions that deliver real-world impact for millions of users. You will influence cross-organizational strategy, mentor engineers, and represent Microsoft in the global research community.

Mission & Impact
  • Define and execute technical strategy for foundational models, multi-agent systems, and next-generation Copilot experiences, especially within Business & Industry Copilot.
  • Lead cross-team efforts to deliver scalable, reliable, and responsible AI systems.
  • Advance state-of-the-art technology and communicate breakthroughs into measurable customer and business impact.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Vision
  • Architect and deliver AI systems across model development, data, infra, evaluation, and deployment spanning multiple product lines.
  • Set technical direction for large programs; drive alignment across Research, Engineering, and Product.
  • Integrate LLMs, multimodal models, multi-agent architectures, and RAG into Microsoft's ecosystem.
  • Establish standards for MLOps, governance, and Responsible AI, compliant with Microsoft principles and industry standards.

Innovation, Research & Translation
  • Drive original research and thought leadership (whitepapers, internal notes, patents); convert insights into shipped capabilities.
  • Research Translation: Continuously review emerging work; identify high-potential methods and adapt them to Microsoft problem spaces.
  • Production Integration: Turn research prototypes into production-quality code optimized for scale, latency, and maintainability.
  • ML Design & Architecture: Own end-to-end pipeline from data prep, training, evaluation, deployment, and feedback loops.
  • Evaluation & Instrumentation: Build offline/online evaluations, experimentation frameworks, and telemetry for model/system performance.
  • Learning Loop Creation: Operationalize continuous learning from user feedback and system signals; close the loop from experimentation to deployment.
  • Experimentation & E2E Validation: Design controlled experiments, analyze results, and drive product/model decisions with data.
  • Model Optimization: Select and pursue the right leaderboards and benchmarks for our problem domain; tune/extend models and ensure they translate to successful UX and production metrics.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence
  • Broker collaborations across Microsoft Research, product engineering, and external partners.
  • Mentor and develop engineers and researchers; foster a culture of technical excellence and innovation.
  • Communicate technical vision and results to executives, internal forums, and external audiences.

Responsible AI & Ethics
  • Establish fairness, privacy, and safety of end-to-end, design, data, training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring.
  • Create and drive adoption of internal policies, auditing frameworks, and tools for ethical AI at scale.

Operating Altitudes
  • Business Initiatives & Customer Outcome: Start from the "why." Frame business needs into technical requirements and evaluate impact (e.g., reducing false positives that cost customers).
  • Paper-Level Ideas & Math: Read and advance reason about guarantees and trade-offs; publish and teach.
  • Code-Level Implementation: Turn ideas into tested, maintainable modules (e.g., refactor prototypes into reusable PyTorch components; integrate CI/CD; cut latency by double-digit %).
  • Systems & GPU Reality: Optimize distributed training/inference, GPU utilization, memory, and data throughput; engineer pragmatic interop across stacks (e.g., Python ML with C# services) to balance accuracy, latency, and cost.

Embody our culture and values.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:
  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
    • OR equivalent experience.

Other Requirements: 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.

Preferred Qualifications:
  • Bachelor's Degree in CS/EE/Math or related field 10+ years in applied AI/ML research and product engineering,
    • OR Master's Degree+ 5 years in applied AI/ML research and product engineering,
    • OR PhD + 2 years in AI/ML or related field with a strong publication record.
  • PhD in AI/ML or related field with top-venue publications and/or patents.
  • Experience architecting and deploying LLMs/multimodal models and multi-agent systems in production at scale.
  • Familiarity with Responsible AI frameworks and bias-mitigation techniques.
  • Experience shaping product strategy and driving organizational change.
  • Experience with Microsoft's LLMOps stack: Azure AI Foundry, Azure Machine Learning, Semantic Kernel, Azure OpenAI Service, and Azure AI Search for vector/RAG.
  • Experience leading large-scale AI systems and cross-org initiatives that shipped.
  • Experience with software engineering foundations and Python plus deep-learning frameworks (PyTorch/ TensorFlow) and modern MLOps/tooling.
  • Experience mentoring engineers/researchers and influencing product direction through data and experimentation.

#BICJobs

#AGENT365

Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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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