Join to apply for the Applied Sciences Specialist role at Microsoft.
Start Date: July 2026
Contract Type: Full-Time (40hrs/week)
Location: London or Cambridge, United Kingdom
Come build community, explore your passions and do your best work at Microsoft. This opportunity will allow you to bring your aspirations, talent, potential and excitement for the journey ahead. The Microsoft Search, Assistant, and Intelligence (MSAI) team leads the development of cutting‑edge AI solutions for Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing natural language understanding and intelligent search capabilities to the productivity tools used by millions every day.
As an Applied Sciences Specialist, you will be at the forefront of technological innovation, working collaboratively to bring research to life in our products and services. You will contribute directly to the evolution of Microsoft 365 Copilot, working on advanced search and recommendation systems powered by large language models (LLMs). You’ll be part of a team that transforms how users interact with information, helping them work smarter and faster. The role is flexible, with expectation of at least 50% presence at our London Paddington or Cambridge office.
Responsibilities
* Advance the science: Design and run experiments, define and validate metrics, develop ML pipelines and models in areas such as reinforcement learning, reasoning, Chain-of-Thought (CoT) optimization, and LLMs, while upholding best practices in Responsible AI and privacy-preserving ML.
* Drive product innovation: Partner with Engineering, PM, and Design to translate product vision and industry trends into scalable, reliable, and agile architecture.
* Collaborate across Microsoft: Work closely with Microsoft Research, Azure, AI platform teams, and product groups to bring cutting‑edge AI into real‑world applications.
* Champion customer impact: Engage with customers and internal teams to deeply understand pain points and drive improvements that matter.
* Lead and mentor: Provide technical leadership to junior scientists and engineers, and scale your learnings across the broader product group.
* Define success: Establish and evolve success metrics that reflect platform and product growth.
* Stay ahead: Keep up with the latest research and foster a thriving applied science culture. Publishing is encouraged, though not required.
Required Qualifications
* A Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related field.
* OR a Bachelor’s Degree in a related field with equivalent experience.
* Excellent problem‑solving and data analysis skills, with expertise in developing or applying predictive analytics, statistical modeling, data mining, or machine learning algorithms at scale.
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to simplify and explain complex ideas.
* Fluency in English.
Preferred Qualifications
* Demonstrated interest in research or applied AI (e.g., academic projects, open‑source contributions).
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.
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