Senior Applied Research Scientist - Generative AI & Agentic Systems

Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s suite of enterprise software that power many of the largest businesses in the world. The Customer Experience Applications Team delivers Dynamics 365 Customer Service Omnichannel that lets our customers run intelligent and highly scalable contact centers. We are building the next generation of our applications running on Azure that pull together Dynamics 365, Office 365 and a number of other Microsoft cloud services to deliver high value, complete, and predictive application scenarios across all devices and form factors.

The AI-First Customer Experience Research team leads innovation in AI-driven systems that transform how businesses engage with information and their subscribers. We are a dynamic group pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with large and small language models, agentic AI, and advanced NLP—reimagining traditional IVR systems and beyond.

Our focus is on applied research that delivers real-world impact. We drive innovation at the intersection of cutting-edge AI and customer support, with a mission to elevate contact center performance and enable agent-first experiences. Our work spans agentic AI, model hosting and optimization, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, natural language understanding, fraud prevention, and advanced voice intelligence.

We are looking for a Senior Applied Research Scientist to join our team. In this role, you will co-lead the research, development, and deployment of next-generation generative AI solutions. Your focus will be on optimizing language models for performance, efficiency, and autonomy—bridging foundational research with production-ready applications.

Model Optimization & Deployment: Efficient model training, distillation and fine-tuning (e.g., LoRA, QLoRA, instruction tuning). Design and implement scalable solutions for deploying Large Language Models (LLMs) and Small Language Models (SLMs) in heterogeneous production environments, considering performance, cost, and latency constraints. Optimize inference of language models, leveraging techniques like vLLM, quantization (e.g., AWQ, GPTQ), and model compression.

Agentic AI Systems: Contribute to the design and development of agentic AI systems capable of autonomous decision-making, planning, reasoning, and multi-step task execution. Implement and orchestrate multi-agent frameworks, enabling agents to collaborate and leverage various tools (including LLMs, SLMs, external APIs, and data) to achieve complex goals.

Prompt Engineering & Workflow: Develop LLM prompts, agents, and query execution workflows, often with tight latency constraints.

Evaluation & Data Management: Develop evaluation techniques, datasets, and metrics to measure the impact of the latest models on product scenarios. Build and deploy Machine Learning (ML) models, create data pipelines, and manage training and test datasets.

Natural Language Processing (NLP): Investigate and implement state-of-the-art methods for NLP tasks, including but not limited to information extraction and semantic understanding.

Collaboration & Innovation: Collaborate closely with Microsoft Research, Microsoft AI groups, AI platform teams and product teams to create the next generation of AI innovation in our products and services. Stay abreast of the latest advancements in AI, machine learning, and especially the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI and agentic systems.

Knowledge Sharing: Contribute to internal knowledge sharing, best practices, and potentially external publications.

Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and other research scientists to translate business needs into technical solutions and drive impactful AI initiatives.

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 4+ years related experience (e.g., statistics predictive analytics, research) OR Master's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research) OR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 1+ year(s) related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)
  • OR equivalent experience
• Hands-on experience in applied research and development within AI/ML, with a significant focus on small/large language models and NLP
• Expertise in Large Language Models (LLMs) and Small Language Models (SLMs), including their architectures (e.g., Transformers), pre-training, and fine-tuning methodologies (e.g., LoRA, QLoRA, instruction tuning)
• 1+ years experience with model compression techniques (quantization, pruning) and optimized inference engines for LLMs (e.g., vLLM)
• 1+ years experience in designing and implementing agentic AI systems, including multi-agent orchestration, planning, tool use, and reasoning

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings:

• Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

Preferred/Additional Qualifications

• Solid understanding and practical experience in designing and implementing agentic AI systems, including multi-agent orchestration, planning, tool use, and reasoning
• Proficiency in Python and relevant ML/DL frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face Transformers)
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills
• Proficient written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences
• Proficiency in C#
• Hands-on experience with NVIDIA Triton
• Proficiency in accelerated application development on GPU substrate (e.g., CUDA)
• Experience working with customers deploying AI solutions
• Comprehensive knowledge of Natural Language Processing principles, algorithms, and common tasks
• Publication record in top-tier conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, EMNLP) is highly desirable

Research Sciences IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $158,400 - $258,000 per year.

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

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until July 18, 2025.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form .

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

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