Principal Applied Science Manager

What you'll do

• Define and drive the long-term vision and strategy for AI-powered media intelligence across Microsoft products.
• Lead the research, incubation, and productionalization of computer vision, multimodal AI, and machine learning technologies.
• Establish technical directions for model architecture, training methodologies, evaluation frameworks, and deployment strategies.
• Manage, coach, and grow a high-performing team of applied scientists and engineers.
• Translate ambiguous business needs into actionable scientific investments and measurable product outcomes.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to influence product roadmaps and strategic investment decisions.
• Establish metrics, experimentation frameworks, and responsible AI practices for model quality and production readiness.
• Drive the development of scalable engineering processes to ensure high-quality media experiences at scale.

What we're looking for

• Bachelor's degree plus 6 years experience, Master's plus 4 years, or Doctorate plus 3 years in a relevant technical field.
• At least 1 year of people management experience.
• Ability to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check.
• Experience creating publications such as patents, libraries, or peer-reviewed academic papers (preferred).
• Experience presenting at conferences or other events as an invited speaker (preferred).
• Experience conducting research as part of a research program in academic or industry settings (preferred).
• Experience developing and deploying live production systems or products from ideation to shipping (preferred).
• Demonstrated experience delivering production AI, machine learning, or computer vision systems at scale (preferred).