Principal Researcher, Agentic AI

Microsoft

Quick summary

Work type
On-site
Location
—
Salary
$142,800–$274,800 / yr
Posted
53 days ago
Closes
Nov 1, 2026

Market check

Salary context

Below market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $219k
This role $209k
$127k most similar roles pay here $291k

This role pays less than 69% of similar roles. Most pay $188,587–$249,837 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $209k versus about $219k for comparable roles.

Based on 240 similar postings.

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 694 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $119,800–$234,700 across 636 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Principal Researcher, Agentic AI

Role Posting Log in to save

As a Principal Researcher in the AI Frontiers lab, you will lead cutting-edge research on agentic intelligence, focusing on developing agents that learn to self-correct and specialize through interaction. Your daily work involves advancing recursive self-improvement techniques, adaptive coordination among multiple models, and continual learning without catastrophic forgetting. You will also contribute to building robust evaluation frameworks and synthetic data pipelines for high-fidelity testing. The role requires expertise in Machine Learning, Human-Computer Interaction, and AI, with a strong preference for experience in agentic model development and deep learning. Ideal candidates have a proven track record of publishing at top conferences like NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, NAACL, and COLM, along with the ability to define ambitious research agendas and lead multi-disciplinary teams effectively.

Skills

Python PyTorch TensorFlow ReinforcementLearning NaturalLanguageProcessing MachineLearning MultiAgentSystems CI/CD Docker Kubernetes AWS GitHub NeurIPS ICML ICLR ACL NAACL COLM

What you'll do

  • Develop agents capable of self-correction, specialization, and collective improvement through interaction.
  • Design robust evaluation frameworks and synthetic data pipelines for agentic systems research.
  • Conduct cutting-edge research on recursive self-improvement using self-generated data in AI models.
  • Refine architectures to ensure agentic systems scale effectively in complex enterprise environments.
  • Investigate adaptive coordination across multiple models to enhance autonomous skill acquisition.

What we're looking for

  • Doctorate in Computer Science or relevant field with 3+ years of research experience.
  • Experience building and evaluating agentic models.
  • Strong publication record at top AI conferences like NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR.
  • Expertise in technical scaling of models and development of robust infrastructure.
  • Ability to define an ambitious original research agenda and lead multi-disciplinary teams.

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