Senior Research Software Engineer

Do you want to help scale Microsoft Research’s most ambitious innovations? We seek a Senior Research Software Engineer for the Microsoft Research Accelerator team to help us build the future for Microsoft and the world.

Microsoft Research (MSR) aims to accelerate scientific discovery and technology innovation to empower everyone on the planet to achieve more. As an integral part of Microsoft Research, the MSR Accelerator team collaborates across Microsoft to advance future-focused research and accelerate its impact across intersections of science & technology, business and society.

As a Senior Research Software Engineer, you will bring your passion and experience to help advance the state of the art in evaluating, understanding, and responsibly developing foundation models, with a focus on embodied Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this role, you will drive project execution in close collaboration with leading scientists and engineers at MSR, teams across Microsoft, and external partners. We are seeking a Senior Software Research Engineer with experience in machine learning, especially in the space of foundation models, and with demonstrated proficiency in developing and delivering production-level code.

This role presents many diverse opportunities for impact, some of which include:

1. Making novel methods and approaches accessible to the science and technology research community through prototypes, open-source libraries, and development tools.
2. Playing a key role in designing and developing cutting-edge frameworks for the scientific evaluation, understanding, and innovation of foundational models.
3. Helping to define and engineer high-ambition experiments that demonstrate new capabilities while advancing the reliability, and robustness of AI models and systems.

To be successful in this role, you should possess a growth mindset. You will need to be persistent, creative, and comfortable with navigating ambiguity. Because you are deeply collaborative, you’ll be able to work with a network of experts at the exciting forefront of today’s rapid advances in AI and advanced computing, with plenty of room to contribute to new innovations at Microsoft.

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.

1. Collaborate with research and engineering teams to design and develop innovative solutions.
2. Create benchmarks and execute experiments for rigorous evaluation and understanding of AI models and systems.
3. Work effectively across engineering teams in both research and production.
4. Drive end-to-end accountability on design and architecture.
5. Work across different incubation projects that may be utilizing different Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) approaches and frameworks.
6. Develop an understanding of a breadth of machine learning approaches, including latest state of the art from academic publications, to develop optimal player experiences agnostic of technical approach.
7. Participate in brainstorming, architecture design, experimenting with different ML approaches.
8. Embody our culture and values.

Required Qualifications

1. Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 4+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C++ or Python.
2. OR equivalent experience.
3. 3+ years coding experience in Python with machine learning frameworks, including, but not limited to TensorFlow and PyTorch.
4. 3+ years experience with natural language processing and machine learning.
5. 1+ year(s) experience in reinforcement learning, natural language generation, code generation, computer vision, transformer models, probabilistic programming, statistical modelling or responsible AI issues.

1. Experience with training and evaluating machine learning models for Natural Language Processing (NLP), Vision, and Multimodal tasks.
2. 5+ years coding proficiency in Python and familiarity with machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or ONNX.
3. Experience converting Machine Learning research into production-ready products or features.
4. Ability to effectively communicate highly technical concepts and insights to a non-technical audience.

Software Engineering IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $112,000 - $218,400 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 $145,800 - $238,600 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

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Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.