Microsoft · 1 day ago
Principal Research Engineer
Redmond, WA
Full-time
Hybrid
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$140K/yr - $275K/yr
4+ years expMicrosoft is seeking a Principal Research Engineer for their CoreAI group on the AI Data Platform team, which is responsible for managing the lifecycle of AI training data. The role involves designing data quality evaluation frameworks, collaborating with stakeholders, and developing synthetic data generation pipelines to enhance model performance and compliance.
Agentic AIApplication Performance ManagementArtificial Intelligence (AI)Business DevelopmentDevOpsInformation ServicesInformation TechnologyManagement Information SystemsNetwork SecuritySoftware
Responsibilities
Design and build a data quality evaluation framework for AI training datasets, including scalable metrics, testing methodologies, and automated reporting
Define and operationalize quality signals aligned to model outcomes (e.g., coverage, diversity, noise/duplication, labeling consistency, safety/toxicity, privacy/compliance risk indicators)
Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to run experiments, establish best practices, and deliver reusable tools that scale across multiple model and product teams
Develop task- and model-aware evaluation approaches that connect dataset properties to training performance, reliability, and safety
Create automated dataset validation gates and monitoring to support continuous dataset iteration (e.g., regression detection across dataset versions)
Design and implement synthetic data generation pipelines (LLM-driven and programmatic approaches) to improve long-tail representation, fill coverage gaps, and accelerate iteration cycles
Build guardrails for synthetic data: filtering, scoring, calibration, provenance tracking, and bias/safety checks to ensure quality and compliance
Partner with engineering to integrate evaluation and generation into the platform’s end-to-end data lifecycle
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's Degree in 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 Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
OR Doctorate in 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
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
Doctorate in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ year(s) related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
5+ years of coding experience in Python and experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch and Triton
3+ years experience of large-scale model training for LLMs, SLMs, and agentic models
3+ years of proven ability to design and scale training infrastructure and pipelines in production environments
Experience with agent training frameworks
Demonstrated experience developing synthetic data generation pipelines to enable SFT and RL training of agentic models
Hands-on experience with large-scale distributed training and/or serving with demonstrated ability to dive deep into complex systems, troubleshoot unconventional issues, and craft innovative solutions under real-world constraints
Extensive experience with large-scale training, model inference, reinforcement learning, and reasoning models
Demonstrated ability to work in cross-functional teams and collaborate effectively with researchers, product managers, and other engineers to deliver complex ML solutions
Startup-style mindset: agile, solution-oriented, and self-driven
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
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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
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