Microsoft

Senior Researcher - Efficient AI

Microsoft • $119K — $234K *
Redmond, WA 98052In-Person
Information Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Reposted Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Doctorate in relevant field OR Master's with 3+ years related experience OR Bachelor's with 4+ years related experience.
  • Experience in designing and optimizing efficient inference systems.
  • Proficiency with machine learning frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow.
  • 3+ years of GPU programming experience, especially with CUDA or similar frameworks.
  • Research impact demonstrated through publications or patents.

Responsibilities

  • Formulate and evaluate algorithmic approaches for AI serving, focusing on token-level latency and throughput.
  • Design and assess endpoint configurations and execution policies for high-performance AI systems.
  • Collaborate with teams to perform hardware and kernel-level optimizations.
  • Build and benchmark prototypes to validate and refine research ideas for production readiness.
  • Publish research findings and contribute to open-source projects.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, and retirement plans.
  • Opportunities for career advancement within a global leader in technology.
  • Access to cutting-edge research and development resources.
  • Dynamic and collaborative work environment focused on innovation.
Full Job Description
Responsibilities
  • Formulate, develop, and evaluate new algorithmic and system-level approaches for end-to-end AI serving, using analytical modeling and large-scale measurement to study token-level latency, tail latency (p95/p99), throughput-per-dollar, cold-start behavior, warm pool strategies, and capacity planning under multi-tenant SLOs and variable sequence lengths.
  • Design and experimentally evaluate endpoint configuration and execution policies, including batching, routing, and scheduling strategies, tensor and pipeline parallelism, quantization and precision profiles, speculative decoding, and chunked or streaming generation, and drive the most promising approaches through robust rollout and validation into production.
  • Perform hardware- and kernel-aware optimization by collaborating closely with model, kernel, compiler, and hardware teams to align serving algorithms with attention/KV innovations and accelerator capabilities.
  • Build and benchmark experimental prototypes and large-scale measurements to validate research ideas and drive them toward production readiness; produce clear technical documentation, design reviews, and operational playbooks.
  • Publish research results, file patents, and, where appropriate, contribute to open-source systems and serving frameworks


Qualifications

Required Qualifications
  • 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.

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
  • Demonstrated experience in designing and optimizing efficient inference systems, combining foundations in algorithmic optimization, parallel computing, and request orchestration under strict SLO constraints with deep knowledge of attention and KV-cache optimizations, batching and scheduling strategies, and cost-aware deployment.
  • 3+ years of experience with machine learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow) and inference serving frameworks (e.g., vLLM, Triton Inference Server, TensorRT-LLM, ONNX Runtime, Ray Serve, DeepSpeed-MII).
  • 3+ years of experience in GPU programming and optimization, with expert knowledge of CUDA, ROCm, Triton, PTX, CUTLASS, or similar GPU programming frameworks.
  • Proficiency in C++ and Python for high-performance systems, with code quality and profiling/debugging skills
  • Research impact through publications and/or patents, coupled with hands-on experience taking research ideas through execution and delivery in production.

#M365Core #M365Research #Research

Research Sciences IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800.00 - $234,700.00 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 $160,200.00 - $261,000.00 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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