Overview

The M365 Copilot team is building the next generation of intelligent assistant systems to empower enterprise users with advanced productivity capabilities. We are hiring Principal Applied Scientist to build the core foundation for M365 Copilot — designed to be fast, agile, secure, high‑quality, cost‑efficient, and scalable.

This role will directly contribute to the core capabilities of Copilot and impact how millions of users interact with their enterprise data:

• You will work on real agent systems at massive scale, not demos or isolated research
• You will shape how agents reason, remember, ground, and collaborate in production
• You will have end‑to‑end ownership and visible impact on enterprise-grade AI products

Responsibilities- Deliver cutting‑edge agent capabilities

Design, prototype, and ship advanced techniques to agentic AI systems, including planning/reasoning, agent memory, skills creator & discovery, and LLM/SLM post-training. Own solutions end‑to‑end, from scientific design to production impact.

• Drive research‑to‑production impact

Identify high‑leverage scientific problems and translate state‑of‑the‑art research into scalable, reliable, and measurable product improvements, partnering closely with engineering and product teams.

• Own scientific quality and evaluation

Define quality bars and evaluation strategies for agent behavior, reasoning, grounding, and safety; diagnose failure modes and drive systematic, data‑driven improvements.

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship

Act as a technical leader for applied science work, mentor other scientists, influence system design, and raise the bar for scientific rigor and execution quality.

• Qualifications- Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 6+ 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+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research) OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research) OR equivalent experience.
• Strong algorithmic and modeling skills, with solid problem-solving capabilities.
• Academic background in RL, agent, or search systems is preferred.
• Demonstrated expertise on multi-turn agent orchestration, memory/context management, long‑horizon tasks, LLM pre-training and post-training is a strong plus.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to thrive in cross-functional environments..

#MicrosoftAI

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.