Senior Applied Scientist

Overview
Microsoft is innovating rapidly in advertising to grow its share of global markets by providing the advertising industry with the state-of-the-art online platform and service. Our team is at the forefront of innovations by harnessing the power of generative AI and LLM-driven agents. We focus on building powerful models, intelligent agents, and scalable training pipelines that drive text and multimedia ads content creation, ads performance optimization, and automated customer support across online ads scenarios. We are a world-class R&D team of passionate and talented scientists and engineers who aspire to solve challenging problems and turn innovative ideas into high-quality products and services that can help hundreds of millions of users and advertisers and directly impact our business.

Responsibilities

• Design, train, evaluate, and deploy advanced models (LLM/MLLM/SLM) to power ads content creation, optimize ad performance, and automate customer support, ensuring measurable business impact.
• Apply deep problem-solving and data analysis skills to uncover opportunities, improve system performance, and deliver scalable solutions across Microsoft products and services.
• Lead the development of robust machine learning pipelines and algorithms for efficient training, data processing, online serving, and performance measurement.
• Stay current with advancements in generative AI, LLM-driven agents, and online advertising, integrating state-of-the-art research into production systems to drive innovation.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, infrastructure engineers, and UI teams to define strategies and deliver impactful solutions aligned with business goals.
• Mentor junior team members and contribute to talent development through onboarding, technical guidance, and participation in recruiting and academic outreach.
• Communicate complex problems, insights, and technical solutions clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, fostering transparency and alignment.

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 3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research) OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 1+ year(s) related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research) OR equivalent experience.2+ years of industry data science experience.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in machine learning, large-scale AI model development, or building and applying LLM-driven agents.
• Hands-on experience in training models for text or multimedia content generation (e.g., LLM/MLLM), or developing agentic algorithms is preferred.
• Proven track record of leading projects and delivering successful results in related areas.
• Technical innovation and creative problem-solving abilities are a plus.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python and C++/C#, with the ability to quickly implement ideas and iterate based on feedback and experiments.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively in cross-functional teams.

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.