Overview

Join the Microsoft 365 Excel Data and Applied Science team, where we are pioneering the next generation of generative AI workflows. As part of this dynamic group, you will help redefine the future of Excel by driving innovations such as Excel Agent and advanced formula autocompletion features. If you are passionate about transforming productivity through intuitive, real-world AI solutions, this position offers a unique opportunity to apply your expertise in a collaborative and forward-thinking environment.

We are seeking a Senior Applied Scientist to drive the ongoing evolution of Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel, focusing on optimizing large language model (LLM) and agentic workflows.

In this influential role, you will leverage your deep expertise in LLMs, information retrieval, and machine learning to lead the innovation, design, and evaluation of high-impact AI solutions for millions of enterprise users worldwide. Your contributions will shape the technical strategy, inform product direction, and foster meaningful cross-functional partnerships - all with the goal of delivering transformative, AI-powered experiences that enable users to achieve more.

Responsibilities:

You’ll work as part of an Applied Science team on high-impact, technically ambitious AI projects that directly shape the future of Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel including

• You will design, fine-tune, and deliver models and agentic flows for integration with Excel Agent and on-canvas experiences.

• You will leverage state-of-the-art LLM fine-tuning and retrieval methods, with robust evaluation metrics and A/B testing to ensure data-driven progress.

• You will gather and curate relevant benchmarks, build a comprehensive evaluation framework, and develop GPT-based evaluators (LLM-as-a-Judge). Run controlled experiments to compare performance, efficiency, and scalability using data-driven metrics and A/B testing focusing on reproducible and impactful results.

• You will continuously study emerging literature, share insights with leadership and peers during research reviews and deep dives adapt quickly to new findings, and integrate them into experiments and when applicable share with broader research community.

Qualifications:

• M.Sc. or PhD in the fields of Computer Science, Information Systems, Mathematics or Data Science.

• Hands-on (at least 2+ years) experience in building and deploying LLM focused products. Candidates are expected to demonstrate successfully translating applied research into production-ready LLM solutions ideally in a large-scale production environment.

• Evidence of research contributions through conference publications in Large Language Models (LLM) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) domains submitted/accepted in top venues (KDD, ICML, AAAI, ACL, ICLR, etc.).

• Strong understanding of advanced research concepts in the field. The ideal candidate should be skilled and have practical experience in areas like post-training of large language models (including CPT, SFT, and RL), benchmarking LLMs, agentic workflows, and model alignment.

• Experienced in evaluating the performance of large language models (LLMs), developing benchmarks tailored to practical scenarios, and using simulation and synthetic data generation techniques.

• Customer obsession and passionate about making real world product impact.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to simplify and explain complex ideas.

• Effective collaboration skills while working effectively within a globally distributed organization.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, or a closely related field.

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.