{"id":4217830,"url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-applied-scientist","title":"Applied Scientist","company":{"id":18,"name":"Microsoft","domain":"microsoft.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/microsoft","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Eightfold","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":84,"open_postings":521,"ghost_share":0.01,"stale_share":0.568,"repost_share":0.05,"time_to_fill_p50_days":30,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Washington, United States","New York, United States","Mountain View, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":102100,"max":202200,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":202200},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"LoRA","optional":false},{"name":"Post-training","optional":false},{"name":"RLAIF","optional":false},{"name":"RLHF","optional":false},{"name":"Transformers","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":true},{"name":"Function Calling","optional":true},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":true},{"name":"PEFT","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":true},{"name":"Reinforcement Learning","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-09T12:56:13Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-12","last_verified_at":"2026-11-13T03:22:27Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":3,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":3},"description":"OverviewFrontier Tuning is Microsoft’s AI customization platform that enables enterprises to adapt foundation models to their unique workflows, domains, and data-while preserving security, privacy, and reliability at scale. As we grow, Frontier Tuning is becoming a critical pillar for ensuring enterprise-specific capabilities are systematically learned and reflected across Microsoft 365 and beyond.\nWe are seeking Applied Scientists with strong systems-building skills who are excited to push the frontier of large-scale model post-training and adaptation. This role spans algorithmic innovation as well as the design and development of scalable infrastructure and tooling for training, steering, evaluating, and securely deploying enterprise-ready AI systems.\nWe welcome candidates with experience in one or more of the following areas:\nScalable training systems for RLHF/RLAIF or other post-training pipelines.\n\nTransformer architecture design or efficient adaptation techniques (e.g., LoRA-style methods).\n\nInference-time steering, controllability, or alignment approaches.\n\nDebugging, evaluation, or development tooling for foundation models.\n\nOperating and maintaining AI production systems.\n\nMicrosoft’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.\nResponsibilities\nEfficient hosting of large language models and parameter-efficient adapters\n\nArchitectural or parameter-efficient adaptation techniques\n\nInference-time steering or controllability approaches\n\nTooling for evaluation, debugging, or model development\n\nHarnesses\nImplement and evaluate adaptation approaches under real-world enterprise deployment constraints such as latency, safety, privacy, policy compliance, and compute efficiency.\n\nPartner with research and engineering teams to translate product or customer requirements into scalable model adaptation solutions.\n\nDrive technical work from concept to prototype, delivering new methods, systems components, or empirical insights that advance enterprise model customization.\n\nDocument approaches and share best practices to improve organizational capabilities in post-training and secure deployment of foundation models.\n\nQualifications\nRequired Qualifications:\nBachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 2+ 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 1+ year(s) related experience (e.g., statistics, predictive analytics, research)\nOR Doctorate in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field\nOR equivalent experience.\n\nOther Requirements:\nAbility 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:\nMicrosoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.\nPreferred Qualifications:\nBachelor's Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field AND 5+ 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)\nOR 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)\nOR equivalent experience.\n\n1+ year(s) experience creating publications (e.g., patents, peer-reviewed academic papers).\nExperience contributing to open-source systems, or production deployments involving foundation model training or adaptation.\nExperience in one or more of the following areas:\nReinforcement learning or post-training methods\nDistributed or large-scale ML training systems\nEvaluation or benchmarking of AI systems\nTool use, planning, or agentic model behaviors\nDeployment of AI solutions in enterprise or customer environments\n1+ years of experience building scalable ML systems or pipelines for training, adapting, or deploying AI models.\n2+ years of experience with Python and machine learning frameworks (e.g., PyTorch or equivalent)\nApplied Sciences IC3 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $102,100 - $202,200 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 $133,800 - $219,200 per year.\nCertain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:\nhttps://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay\nThis position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.\nMicrosoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6229,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":true},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Cloud Platforms (IaaS & PaaS)","Office & Productivity Software","Gaming Consoles","Developer Tools"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-13T03:22:27Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 6,957 · green card filings: 2,767","filings_12m":6957,"filings_prev_12m":10319,"green_card_filings_12m":2767,"median_offered_wage_usd":167541,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-12T07:36:15+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":5265}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":3,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-13T04:29:42Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":202200,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-applied-scientist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-applied-scientist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-13T04:29:42Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":9520,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-14T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":18},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=18"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-applied-scientist"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-applied-scientist"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-applied-scientist"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/microsoft-applied-scientist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-applied-scientist"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4217830}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"microsoft.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4217830},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}