Microsoft · 21 hours ago
Principal Applied Research Manager
United States, Redmond, WA
Full-time
Hybrid
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$140K/yr - $275K/yr
6+ years expMicrosoft is building the future of AI for developers through GitHub Copilot and is seeking a Principal Applied Research Manager. The role involves leading a team of applied researchers and engineers to drive high-impact science into product experiences, focusing on developing agentic developer experiences and evaluation systems.
Agentic AIApplication Performance ManagementArtificial Intelligence (AI)Business DevelopmentDevOpsInformation ServicesInformation TechnologyManagement Information SystemsNetwork SecuritySoftware
Responsibilities
Evaluation Leadership: Define the quality standards and success metrics that determine when a model is ready for users
System Building: Create the end-to-end evaluation infrastructure, including benchmarks, automated pipelines, and human-in-the-loop testing
Strategic Vision: Set the AI innovation roadmap for Copilot and coding agents, turning "bold bets" and research questions into shipped product features
Research Execution: Partner with engineering to iterate on models, prompts, and retrieval to accelerate the path to production
Hire, mentor, and grow a high-performing team; raise the technical bar through reviews and mentorship, create clarity in ambiguity, and influence partners across research, product, engineering, and Responsible AI to execute quickly and responsibly
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
1+ year(s) of people management experience
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
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 of people management experience
Experience as a lead driving large AI research across multiple researchers or applied scientists
Experience with LLMs in natural language
Software development skills in Python, C#, C++, or Java
Experience with AI for code or related fields
Experience in productizing AI and collaborating with multidisciplinary teams
Experience publishing academic papers as a lead author or essential contributor in field of Artificial Intelligence
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
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2026-01-16
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