Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Applied Scientist

We are looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Applied Scientist to help define, evaluate, and build the next generation of AI-powered product experiences. This role requires a leader who combines deep applied science expertise in LLMs, evaluation systems, AI, MLOps, experimentation, and software engineering with strong product judgment and a proven ability to ship high-quality AI solutions.

You will play a critical role in shaping how AI capabilities are developed, measured, improved, and brought into production. The ideal candidate has experience building AI-based products end to end, defining what success looks like for customers and the business, and creating rigorous evaluation frameworks that guide fast, high-confidence product iteration.

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.

• Lead applied science strategy for AI-powered product areas, from ambiguous opportunity identification through experimentation, launch, and continuous improvement.
• Define what success looks like for AI product experiences, including customer value, quality thresholds, reliability, safety, engagement, and measurable business impact.
• Design and operationalize LLM evaluation frameworks across the product development lifecycle, including early prototyping, model/prompt iteration, feature development, pre-launch validation, launch readiness, and post-launch monitoring.
• Build evaluation methodologies for LLM-based, agentic, retrieval-augmented, and multimodal AI systems, including text, image, document, audio, video, and interaction-based experiences where applicable.
• Develop robust offline experimentation and evaluation pipelines to compare models, prompts, system designs, retrieval strategies, grounding quality, tool use, and end-to-end product behavior.
• Partner closely with engineering and PM leadership to align science priorities with product strategy, roadmap decisions, customer needs, and execution plans.
• Work with software engineering teams to produce AI systems with strong attention to reliability, scalability, latency, observability, maintainability, and MLOps best practices.
• Drive fast iteration cycles by forming hypotheses, defining metrics, running experiments, interpreting results, and recommending clear product or technical actions.
• Establish quality bars and decision-making frameworks for AI launches, including evaluation scorecards, regression testing, guardrail metrics, and responsible AI considerations.
• Mentor scientists and engineers, raise the technical bar, and influence cross-team best practices for AI development, experimentation, and evaluation.
• Communicate findings, tradeoffs, risks, and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Applied Sciences IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $160,200 - $261,000 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.