Applied Scientist II

Overview

Join the Copilot Agents & Search Quality team to improve how people find and use information through M365 Copilot Chat, Copilot Search, Work IQ, and agent experiences. As an Applied Scientist II, you will apply machine learning and information retrieval methods to enterprise search problems. You will work with scientists, engineers, and product partners to develop and evaluate improvements to search quality, and help bring effective approaches into products.

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

• Investigate search and retrieval quality problems using data, offline evaluation, and statistical analysis.
• Develop and test methods for query understanding and sparse, dense, or multimodal retrieval, including large language model techniques where appropriate.
• Build and analyze evaluations and experiments; explain results, limitations, and recommendations to partners.
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to integrate validated approaches and assess quality, latency, and efficiency.
• Document findings and refine solutions based on evaluation results and product needs.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 2+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
• OR Masters Degree 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 Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field
• OR equivalent experience.

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:

• Experience with information retrieval or search relevance, including query understanding, sparse or dense retrieval, or multimodal retrieval.
• Experience with Python and a deep-learning framework such as PyTorch.
• Experience designing offline evaluations or analyzing online experiments.
• Experience partnering with engineers to bring machine-learning methods into product systems.
• Familiarity with large language models or agentic search and methods for evaluating grounded results.
• Experience using quantitative methods to investigate a technical or product problem and communicate findings.
• Experience programming to implement or analyze models or data.

#CAP #Copilot

Applied Sciences IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $133,800 - $219,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

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.