Senior Researcher

This Senior Researcher position is in the Office of the Chief Economist at Microsoft’s Seattle-area headquarters. We are not like other industry jobs: we value both excellence in academic research and internal impact. Our group sits within Monetization and Business Planning. This is a job for economists who value an opportunity to do academic research that makes a large impact in the real world. The position is open rank. Although we will focus on junior candidates (ranging from fresh Ph.D.’s to those who are 6 years out) we will consider senior candidates as well.

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.  
  
In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.  

Responsibilities

Research Economists work closely with Chief Economist Michael Schwarz and his team of economists and data scientists on high-impact projects in a supportive research environment.

Topic areas include market design, electricity, cloud marketplaces, search auctions, optimal pricing contracts, retail product competition, scalable demand estimation, structural demand estimation, machine learning for both prediction and causal inference, optimal capacity investment, measuring ad effectiveness, economics of subscriptions, and other applied theory.

Successful candidate should drive their own agenda as well as work with the broader team. Candidates with the following backgrounds have historically done well in this environment: empirical IO, applied micro, and econometrics.

Other

• Embody our culture and values 

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Doctorate in Economics or relevant field
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Experience in R, Python, or Stata, including common tools for data manipulation (e.g., dplyr, pandas, polars), graphing, and causal inference
• Experience of standard econometric methods in "small data" (e.g., difference in differences, matching, synthetic control) and "big data" setting (e.g., double machine learning)?

Preferred Qualifications

• Doctorate in Economics or relevant field AND 2+ years related research experience
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Experience publishing academic papers as a lead author or essential contributor.
• Experience participating in a top conference in relevant research domain.
• Experience with Spark or other tools for processing big data
• Experience developing custom empirical models and methods for pricing and/or market design

Research Sciences IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $117,200 - $229,200 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 $153,600 - $250,200 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

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until October 16, 2024.

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