principal data scientist

Overview

We’re hiring a Principal Data Scientist to help reimagine Copilot Search & Agents—turning search into action with AI that understands context, summarizes content at a glance, and helps users move work forward instantly. You’ll ship ML that reaches hundreds of millions and fuels real productivity gains, while publishing, filing patents, and working on truly cutting‑edge tech.

Why this role

Join the team building AI that makes work effortless: Copilot Search brings fast, relevant, context‑aware answers across enterprise data, and Agents turn insights into actions—right where people work. You’ll help craft AI experiences that surface the right understanding of content directly in search results and then let users act on it—at planet scale.

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

• Design and ship ML for semantic search, summarization, entity/topic understanding, and related‑content discovery that turns “find” into “know in a glance.”
• Build evaluation frameworks (online + offline) and run rapid experimentation to improve relevance, trust, and user productivity.
• Partner across Eng/PM/Design to productionize models in low‑latency, high‑reliability services powering Copilot Search and Agent workflows.
• Leverage connectors and extensibility patterns to ground models in first‑ and third‑party systems (Graph connectors, plugins), all under Microsoft’s security, privacy, and responsible AI standards.
• Contribute to publications, patents, and open collaboration—share results at top venues and translate research into features that help users get real work done.
  
  

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications:

• Doctorate in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results).
• OR Masters Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 7+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results).
• OR Bachelors Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 10+ years data science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results).
• OR equivalent experience.
• Depth in NLP/IR/LLMs/RAG, and/or Graph/representation learning; strong fundamentals in causal inference or experimentation a plus.
• Proficiency in Python (and one of: C#/Java/Scala), data tooling (e.g., PyTorch/Transformers, Spark/SQL), and production ML practices.
• Experience optimizing latency, reliability, and cost for AI services in cloud environments (Azure preferred).
• Evidence of thought leadership (papers, patents, OSS, talks) and cross‑discipline collaboration.
• Passion for product impact: you care about measurable gains in user productivity and quality.
  

Preferred Qualifications

What makes this opportunity special

• Impact at massive scale: your models will power everyday work for hundreds of millions of users across Microsoft 365.
• Cutting‑edge AI: from LLM‑grounded retrieval and summarization to agentic workflows that execute tasks on users’ behalf—within the Copilot app.
• Publish & patent: bring new ideas to the world and protect novel inventions as you ship them.
• Mission with responsibility: innovate within Microsoft’s enterprise‑grade security, privacy, and Responsible AI guardrails.
  
  

Nice to have

• Prior work on enterprise search, recommendations, summarization, or agents; familiarity with Copilot extensions/Graph connectors.
  
  

#M365CORE

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.
  
  

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.

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