Overview:

The PROSE team at Microsoft advances the state of the art in neuro-symbolic program synthesis and agentic AI, with a long-standing focus on spreadsheets and software engineering. Our work is deeply cross-disciplinary, spanning artificial intelligence, programming languages, software engineering, machine learning, and human–computer interaction, and has been published in leading venues across these communities and recognized through multiple best-paper and test-of-time awards, as well as invited conference keynotes. PROSE research powers AI capabilities across flagship Microsoft products including Excel, Visual Studio, PowerQuery, PowerShell, and Power Automate, impacting millions of users worldwide. The team has repeatedly demonstrated how foundational research can translate into large-scale product impact.

We are seeking a Principal Research Manager to lead and grow a world-class research team in India. In this role, you will help shape the next generation of Copilot experiences by leveraging latest foundation models and neuro-symbolic reasoning through rigorous evaluation, targeted fine-tuning, and thoughtful prompt and skill design, thus enabling end users to accomplish dramatically more with code and data. You will operate at the intersection of cutting-edge AI research and real-world deployment, defining research directions that influence Microsoft’s product roadmap while maintaining a strong presence in top academic venues. This position offers a rare opportunity to set scientific direction, grow research leaders, and see ideas through from conception to global impact, working closely with engineers and product teams to ensure that ambitious research results in systems that ship and matter.

To learn more about our approach and culture see this award talk on the story behind one of the team’s early innovations: the Flash Fill feature in Excel.

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:

As a Principal Research Manager, you will have the opportunity to:

• Lead and shape innovative AI research with applications to code and data, particularly in spreadsheet-centric and developer-productivity scenarios.
• Manage and mentor a high-caliber, cross-disciplinary research team, including full-time researchers and research fellows.
• Drive research-to-product transfer, working closely with engineers and PMs to deploy research into Microsoft products.
• Define and evolve a research agenda aligned with both long-term scientific impact and near-term product needs.
• Publish in top-tier academic venues and actively engage with the broader research community through collaborations, reviews, and service.

Qualifications Required/Minimum Qualifications:

• Doctorate in relevant field AND 6+ years related research experience.OR Master's Degree in relevant field AND 7+ years related research experience.
• OR Bachelor's Degree in relevant field AND 9+ years related research experience.
• OR equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of people-management experience, managing a research or science team in an industrial or applied research setting.
• 5+ years of hands-on research experience in one or more of: machine learning, programming languages, software engineering, or human-computer interaction.
• At least 5 publications in top-tier venues such as AAAI, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, EMNLP, NAACL, ACL, POPL, PLDI, OOPSLA, ICSE, FSE, CHI, UIST, or comparable conferences.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and lead an original research agenda, including serving as lead author on at least one top-tier publication.
• Proven experience designing and building end-to-end AI systems or production-grade systems that scale to real-world usage.

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:

• Doctorate in relevant field AND 8+ years related research experience.OR Master's Degree in relevant field AND 12+ years related research experience.
• OR Bachelor's Degree in relevant field AND 15+ years related research experience.
• OR equivalent experience.
• 5+ years people management experience.
• 5+ years of leadership experience (e.g., leading research projects, leading program committees, mentoring interns/post-docs).
• Experience publishing academic papers as a lead author or essential contributor.
• Experience participating in a top conference in relevant research domain.

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.