Microsoft · 1 day ago
Principal Applied Scientist
Mountain View, CA
Full-time
Hybrid
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$140K/yr - $275K/yr
6+ years expMicrosoft is a global technology company that empowers every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. As a Principal Applied Scientist at Viva Engage, you will build Agentic applications and predictive models to enhance communication and knowledge sharing across organizations. This role involves designing machine learning capabilities and owning the end-to-end delivery of applied science solutions.
Agentic AIApplication Performance ManagementArtificial Intelligence (AI)Business DevelopmentDevOpsInformation ServicesInformation TechnologyManagement Information SystemsNetwork SecuritySoftware
Responsibilities
Design, build, and ship machine learning and LLM-driven capabilities that directly power AI features in Viva Engage, with clear product KPIs (e.g., activation, retention, engagement, moderation quality, time saved)
Own end-to-end delivery of applied science solutions: problem framing → data/labels → modeling/prompting → evaluation → experimentation (A/B tests) → deployment → monitoring → iteration
Develop and operationalize AI agents for knowledge discovery, moderation, communities, and events—focused on measurable user value, automation, and high-quality recommendations
Work with large, complex datasets to solve ambiguous, non-routine product problems using advanced statistical and ML methods, prioritizing approaches that are production-viable
Utilize Large Language Models (LLMs) for advanced text analysis and natural language understanding tasks, enabling deeper connections and knowledge sharing across organizations
Leverage generative AI techniques to enhance data augmentation and predictive capabilities, further improving recommendations and personalized user experiences
Develop deep product intuition to influence future product roadmaps and drive decision-making by making pragmatic tradeoffs between model quality, engineering complexity, and time-to-value
Collaborate with product and engineering to craft experiments and test hypotheses
Communicate clearly across disciplines: translate complex technical decisions into product implications, risks, and expected outcomes
Operate effectively in complex, cross-team environments and drive alignment through technical leadership and execution
This is a hands-on applied science engineering role: you will write production-quality code, prototype quickly, and implement your own solutions (not just analyses, papers, or slide decks)
You will contribute directly in areas such as Python/TypeScript/Java services or pipelines, Prompt/Agent orchestration, Evaluation harnesses, Experimentation instrumentation, and model/agent monitoring
Success is defined by shipped features and measurable product impact
Autonomy and freedom to innovate—paired with accountability to deliver customer-facing outcomes collaborating with PM/Eng/UX as necessary
The ability to choose from best-in-class open source and Microsoft technology to ship reliably at scale
A strong experimentation culture: offline eval + online A/B testing to make data-driven decisions
An opportunity for outsized impact as part of a small but mighty team on a rapidly growing product needed now more than ever
Qualification
Required
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
Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role
Preferred
Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 9+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 6+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
OR equivalent experience
5+ years experience creating publications (e.g., patents, libraries, peer-reviewed academic papers)
2+ years experience presenting at conferences or other events in the outside research/industry community as an invited speaker
5+ years experience conducting research as part of a research program (in academic or industry settings)
3+ years experience developing and deploying live production systems, as part of a product team
3+ years experience developing and deploying products or systems at multiple points in the product cycle from ideation to shipping
Company
Microsoft
Microsoft is a software corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
Microsoft has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9192)
2024 (9343)
2023 (7677)
2022 (11403)
2021 (7210)
2020 (7852)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$1MKey Investors
Technology Venture Investors
2022-12-09Post Ipo Equity
1986-03-13IPO
1981-09-01Series Unknown· $1M
Leadership Team
Satya Nadella
Chairman and CEO
Vukani Mngxati
Chief Executive Officer - Microsft South Africa
Recent News
2026-01-16
Morningstar.com
2026-01-16
Company data provided by crunchbase