Senior Data Scientist

Overview

Do you want to shape the future of the autonomous enterprise and lead the development of intelligent, agent-first experiences that transform how businessesoperate The Business and Industry Solutions (BIS) team is looking for aSeniorApplied Scientist to drive innovation at the intersection of AI, experimentation, and enterprise systems. In this role, you will design and evaluate autonomous agents that deliver measurable improvements in accuracy, latency, and cost-efficiency.You'lllead rapid experimentation cycles, develop robust evaluation frameworks, and apply advanced techniques like reinforcement learning to enable multi-step reasoning and decision-making.You'llcollaborate across engineering, product, and partner teams to ensure agents are performant, secure, reliable, and extensibleempowering customers and partners to build on our platform. This is your opportunity to influence the next generation of AI-native business applications and deliver real-world impact at scale.

The ideal candidate has priorexpertisein natural language processing (NLP), witha strong foundationin large language model (LLM) development, evaluation, and fine-tuning. They should have hands-on experience in applying advanced fine-tuning techniquesincluding instruction tuning, reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), and tool-augmented generationto build agents capable of multi-step reasoning and decision-making. Familiarity with prompt/contextengineering, context-aware orchestration, and integrating LLMs with external tools and APIs is essential. The candidate should becomfortable working in a fast-paced, experimentation-driven environment,leveragingboth offline and online evaluation methods to iterate rapidly andoptimizeagent behavior. A deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in building AI-native enterprise applications will be key to success in this role.

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities

• Deliver impactful solutionsby executing highleverage data science and analytics initiatives within a product area or feature team, ensuring measurable improvements to user and business outcomes.
• Lead the design and implementationof advanced model finetuning pipelines, including Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), to align AI system behavior with user intent and improve performance in realworld scenarios.
• Own complex, endtoend projectsthat combine technical depth with crossfunctional collaboration, influencing feature direction and prioritization rather than broad organizational investment decisions.
• Foster alignment and trustacross partner teams through clear, actionable communication and collaborative problemsolving.
• Develop and maintainrobust measurement systems, experimentation frameworks, and causal inference methodologies tailored to dynamic AI systems and enterprisescale environments.
• Mentor and supportpeers by sharing best practices, reviewing designs, and contributing to a collaborative, highperformance team culture.
• Leverage AI tostreamline workflows and enhance team productivity throughintelligentautomation and innovation.
  
  

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
• OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 4+ year(s) related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
• OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field
• 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

• Master's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND6+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
• OR Doctorate in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
• OR equivalent experience.
• 3+years experiencecreating publications (e.g., patents, libraries, peer-reviewed academic papers).
• Experience presenting at conferences or other events in the outside research/industry community as an invited speaker.
• 3+years experienceconducting research as part of a research program (in academic or industry settings).
• 1+ year(s)experience developing and deploying live production systems, as part of a product team.
• 1+ year(s)experience developing and deploying products or systems at multiple points in the product cycle from ideation to shipping.
  

#BICJOBS

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.