Principal Product Manager

Overview

The base model gets you capability. Post-training is what turns that capability into a model people actually want to use; one that follows instructions well, has the right tone and judgment for Copilots surfaces, refuses the right things, and keeps getting better release over release.

Were looking for a Principal Product Manager to sit inside that process. Youll be embedded directly with applied researchers and ML engineers running RLHF, fine-tuning, and preference-tuning pipelines, reading model outputs, calling out whats wrong, and turning that into concrete training priorities. Youre the person who brings the end users voice into a room thats otherwise all metrics and loss curves.

This is a technical, hands-on PM role, not just a roadmap-and-requirements role. Youll spend real time in transcripts and eval dashboards, and youll need enough grounding in how post-training actually works (RLHF, DPO/preference optimization, instruction tuning, data curation) to have a credible point of view with the research team.

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

• Embed in the post-training loop: work day-to-day with research and applied ML teams during fine-tuning and RLHF cycles, reviewing model outputs and giving structured feedback on quality, tone, and behavior

• Define what "good" means for Copilots models: set the priorities for capability, personality, and safety tradeoffs across surfaces (Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio agents, Windows) - where "good" is often genuinely ambiguous and hasnt been decided before

• Run RLHF/preference data campaigns: partner with data and labeling teams to scope what human preference data gets collected, for which behaviors, and why

• Build and maintain behavior evals: translate qualitative judgment calls ("this response felt too hedgy," "this refused when it shouldnt have") into evaluation sets that can be tracked release over release

• Own the feedback loop: turn user research, enterprise customer feedback, and production incident learnings into concrete post-training priorities - closing the gap between "users are unhappy with X" and "the next fine-tune addresses X"

• Make the tuning tradeoffs explicit: helpfulness vs. caution, consistency vs. personality, latency/cost vs. quality - and drive alignment across research, safety, and product leadership on where the line sits

• Represent Responsible AI and enterprise requirements into training priorities - compliance behaviors, refusal policies, and brand voice all have to be reflected in what the model is actually tuned to do.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree AND 10+ years experience in product/service/program management or software development
• OR equivalent experience.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree AND 15+ years experience in product/service/program management or software development

• OR equivalent experience.

• 6+ years experience taking a product, feature, or experience to market (e.g., design, addressing product market fit, and launch, internal tool/framework).

• 8+ years experience improving product metrics for a product, feature, or experience in a market (e.g., growing customer base, expanding customer usage, avoiding customer churn).

• 8+ years experience disrupting a market for a product, feature, or experience (e.g., competitive disruption, taking the place of an established competing product).

Product Management IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $165,600 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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.