As a Principal Data & Applied Scientist in the Engineering Operations (EngOps) Data & Applied Sciences team at Microsoft, you will collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and implement cutting-edge AI solutions that enhance security, reliability, and quality for Azure customers. Your day-to-day responsibilities include engaging with product and business groups to drive AI projects from conception through deployment, leveraging large-scale computing frameworks like PyTorch and TensorFlow to build and validate models, and conducting rigorous experiments to ensure the effectiveness of your solutions. You will also mentor team members, manage project timelines, and adhere to Microsoft’s Responsible AI standards throughout the development process. This role requires a deep understanding of machine learning, generative AI, and information retrieval systems, as well as experience in creating live production systems and contributing to industry publications.
Skills
Python
PyTorch
TensorFlow
langchain
Azure
Machine Learning
Generative AI
Information Retrieval
Recommendation Systems
CI/CD
Responsible AI
Kubernetes
Docker
AWS
GitHub
Jupyter Notebook
What you'll do
Lead the lifecycle of AI projects from ideation to worldwide availability.
Build and apply advanced models using large-scale computing frameworks and data analysis systems.
Conduct rigorous experiments to assess and improve solution quality based on customer feedback.
Mentor team members, manage project schedules, and ensure adherence to Responsible AI standards.
Stay updated with advancements in machine learning and contribute to the company’s intellectual property.
What we're looking for
Master's degree in a relevant field with 9+ years of related experience or Ph.D. with 6+ years.
Extensive experience (5+) creating publications such as patents and peer-reviewed papers.
Proven track record (2+) presenting at industry conferences as an invited speaker.
Solid background (3+) conducting research within academic or industrial settings.
Demonstrated success (3+) developing and deploying live production systems in a product team.
Market check
Salary context
This
$139,900–$274,800
range sits above
75%
of similar postings on FindRole.
Peer median band
$139,900–$234,000
Median floor and ceiling across peers.
Typical midpoint (25–75%)
$162,000–$207,712
Middle half of comparable postings.
Based on 240 comparable postings.*
* 240 is the maximum number of comparable postings sampled.
Employer
About Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a global technology leader producing software, hardware, and cloud services including Windows, Office 365, Azure cloud platform, Xbox gaming, and Surface devices. Industry: Software & Cloud Computing
Microsoft currently has
451 open roles
on FindRole.
Listed pay typically runs
$119,800–$234,700
across 417 roles with salary data.
PyTorch
TensorFlow
LLM-based ranking
agentic AI
generative AI
recommendation systems
deep learning
modern ML frameworks
cloud-scale infrastructure
distributed pipelines
high-throughput online services
data processing systems
multi-tiered distributed services
large-scale data analytics
Spark
asynchronous programming
multi-objective optimization
CI/CD