Member of Technical Staff, Principal Tech Lead Manager, Image Generation

We are hiring a Principal Tech Lead Manager to own and grow Copilot's image generation capabilities. This is a high-impact, high-ownership role at the intersection of frontier model integration, evaluation science, and product quality. This role sits at the heart of one of Copilot's most visible and fast-growing features.

You will set the technical direction for image generation, lead a team of Applied AI engineers and platform engineers, and drive measurable improvements in image quality, user satisfaction, and first-run success. You will also be responsible for growing the team by identifying, recruiting, and onboarding the engineers needed to take these capabilities to the next level.

Technical Leadership & Vision

• Define and own the end-to-end technical roadmap for Copilot image generation — from prompt understanding and model integration to evaluation, quality, and reliability.
• Establish architectural best practices for image generation pipelines, including prompt conditioning, safety filtering, multimodal grounding, and user personalization.
• Partner with research, product, and infrastructure teams to translate long-horizon vision into executable milestones.
• Serve as the primary technical decision-maker for model selection, integration approaches, and evaluation strategy.

Image Generation Product & Model Delivery

• Lead the integration, evaluation, and launch of new image generation models and capabilities into Copilot surfaces.
• Drive improvements to first-run success rate, image quality, prompt adherence, and overall user satisfaction with generated images.
• Build and own the feedback loop from user signals to model and prompt iteration. Close the loop from production data to systematic improvements.
• Identify and resolve failure modes in image generation including safety gaps, quality regressions, prompt misinterpretation, and accessibility issues.

Evaluation, Hillclimbing & Quality Systems

• Architect and scale evaluation frameworks purpose-built for image generation: aesthetic quality, safety, prompt fidelity, diversity, and user preference.
• Lead competitive benchmarking against peer systems, establishing clear metrics to track progress and signal investment areas.
• Run systematic hillclimbing loops across models, prompts, and post-processing strategies to drive continuous quality improvement.
• Build tooling that enables rapid experimentation and tight iteration cycles for the broader AI org.

Team Building & People Leadership

• Hire, onboard, and grow a high-performing team of Applied AI Engineers and ML practitioners focused on image generation.
• Set clear goals and success criteria for direct reports; invest in their development through coaching, feedback, and stretch opportunities.
• Partner with recruiting to define hiring criteria, run structured interviews, and represent the team's needs in headcount planning.
• Create and maintain a culture of ownership, experimentation, and rigorous quality standards.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with PM, design, safety, and research leadership to translate ambiguous product goals into technical strategies.
• Coordinate across Copilot platform, backend, and frontend teams to ensure smooth integration of image generation capabilities.
• Communicate technical progress, risks, and decisions clearly to senior leadership and stakeholders.

Required

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.

Preferred

• Master's degree or PHD or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Applied Math, Statistics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of industry experience in applied ML, AI product engineering, or related disciplines.
• 1+ years managing a team of engineers or data scientists.
• Demonstrated experience shipping production AI or ML systems at scale.
• Prior experience leading or mentoring engineers, including at formal tech lead and senior IC responsibilities.
• Hands-on experience building evaluation frameworks or quality systems for AI/ML products.
• Track record of driving measurable quality or performance improvements through systematic iteration.
• Direct experience with image generation models (diffusion models, GANs, multimodal models, etc.).
• Experience building and owning hillclimbing infrastructure for generative AI.
• Formal people management experience, including hiring and performance management.
• Experience working o