Principal Applied Science Manager

We are looking for a Principal Applied Science Manager to build and lead a high-performing team delivering breakthrough applied machine learning and information retrieval solutions at enterprise scale. This role is a unique opportunity to apply state-of-the-art techniques—including dense retrieval, hybrid search, multilingual large language models (LLMs), RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), and transformer-based re-ranking models—to solve complex challenges in Copilot-driven enterprise search.

As a technical and people leader, you’ll be responsible for delivering mission-critical innovations that directly improve Copilot experiences. Your team will work on:

• Adapting advanced vector search algorithms (e.g., FAISS, ANN, ScaNN) for enterprise-scale semantic retrieval
• Improving classic and neural keyword search quality through deep language understanding
• Designing and training relevance models, including LLM fine-tuning and learning-to-rank (LTR) approaches
• Building robust evaluation pipelines using offline metrics and online A/B experimentation
• Driving cross-org collaboration with platform partners, other applied science teams, and product teams across time zones

This is a highly impactful role requiring a mix of technical depth, strategic execution, and people management to shape the next generation of AI-powered search experiences.

At Microsoft, we are united by our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We foster a culture driven by growth mindset, collaboration, and inclusive innovation, rooted in our core values of respect, integrity, and accountability.

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.

Responsibilities

• Drive end-to-end applied science projects: From ideation and design to implementation, experimentation, and shipping, you will lead high-impact projects that directly improve Copilot Chat, Copilot Search, and BizChat experiences. This includes identifying search and relevance gaps, formulating innovative hypotheses, and delivering scalable solutions.
• Lead and grow a high-performing applied science team: Manage, mentor, and empower a team of applied scientists—owning their technical direction, project execution, and career development. You will guide day-to-day work, ensure scientific and engineering rigor, and be accountable for the team’s output and impact.
• Innovate with scientific rigor: Invent and apply cutting-edge techniques in machine learning, natural language processing, and information retrieval to address real-world challenges at enterprise scale. You will design novel approaches for improving retrieval, ranking, query understanding, and semantic search in Copilot systems.
• Document, share, and amplify learnings: Promote a culture of transparency and innovation by capturing experimental results, documenting methodology, and publishing internal learnings. You’ll drive knowledge sharing that enables broader impact across the organization.
• Translate business goals into scientific strategy: Partner closely with product and business stakeholders to align team efforts with high-priority objectives. You will translate ambiguous product requirements into clear, data-driven, and technically feasible directions.
• Collaborate across organizations and time zones: Work cross-functionally with platform engineering teams, peer science orgs, and product managers to ensure alignment, resolve dependencies, and unblock progress. You’ll be a key bridge between applied science innovation and product delivery.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 8+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR Master's Degree in St