Principal Applied Scientist

The Core Recommendation Ranking team in Microsoft AI Copilot Discover Engineering Org is looking for a passionate and experienced applied scientist architect who wants to build the next generation of recommendations using advanced AI technologies, especially large language models, at scale.

You will partner closely with engineering, product, and applied science teams to design, optimize, and scale intelligent ranking systems that power personalized content experiences for millions of users.

Responsibilities:

• Design & implement ranking, reranking, and retrieval models using deep learning, LLMs, and advanced recommendation techniques.
• Architect the next generation of ranking, reranking, and retrieval systems for large-scale content recommendation scenarios.
• Lead the design of robust, efficient, and extensible ML/DL models pipelines, including feature engineering, model training, evaluation, and online inference.
• Establish technical standards and best practices for experimentation, model governance, and system reliability.
• Drive innovation in model architectures.
• Partner with engineering, product, and platform teams to align roadmaps, integrate new capabilities, and ensure seamless end-to-end delivery.
• Invest in others' growth and mentor team members, fostering a culture of scientific rigor, innovation, and operational excellence.
• Regularly communicate team progress internally and evangelize progress and opportunities to a wider audience including management and leadership.
• Mentor junior scientists and engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and knowledge sharing.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 6+ years related experience.
• Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years related experience.
• Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 9+ years related experience.
• Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 6+ years related experience.
• 8+ years of experiences in applied science, deep learning, or related fields, with a solid track record of delivering production ML systems at scale.
• Expertise in recommendation systems, ranking models, search relevance, or personalization.
• Experience applying LLM techniques or Recommendation system.
• Proficiency in modern ML frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence technical direction across multiple teams.
• Solid communication skills with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Experience with LLM-based ranking, agentic AI, or generative AI applied to recommendation or personalization.

#MicrosoftAI Applied Sciences IC5 – The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 – $274,800 per year.