The Principal Applied Scientist role at Microsoft Copilot focuses on developing machine learning and generative AI systems to enhance conversational shopping experiences. This position requires expertise in product discovery, ranking, and personalization, leveraging large-scale commerce data. The role emphasizes collaboration with product, engineering, and design teams to create reliable user-facing experiences. The ideal candidate will also contribute to Responsible AI practices and model governance.

• Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field and 6+ years of related experience, or a Master's Degree with 4+ years, or a Doctorate with 3+ years, or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience developing machine learning or statistical models.
• Proficiency in programming for data science using Python or R.
• Experience with data querying languages such as SQL.
• Hands-on experience with large-scale data processing tools like Apache Spark or Azure Databricks.
• Skilled in time-series analysis and anomaly detection techniques.
• Practical experience with prompt engineering and fine-tuning GPT-like models.

• Design, build, and productionize machine learning models for product discovery and personalization.
• Develop LLM-based systems for conversational shopping, including prompt design and tool orchestration.
• Address quality and trust challenges such as hallucination risk and recommendation reliability.
• Define evaluation frameworks and experimentation strategies for shopping scenarios.
• Partner closely with product, engineering, and design teams to translate models into reliable experiences.
• Provide technical leadership through design reviews and mentoring.
• Contribute to model governance and Responsible AI practices.

• Employees at Microsoft are often offered comprehensive, “world-class” benefits—including health and mental-wellness programs, competitive pay with bonuses and stock awards, and retirement/savings options. Time-off and flexibility are common, with generous vacation and holidays, parental and caregiver leave, and flexible work schedules, alongside learning support, employee resource groups, product discounts, and matching-gifts/volunteering programs. Specific benefits can vary by region.