Principal Applied Scientist

Job description

The Sociotechnical Alignment Center (STAC) is an interdisciplinary team of researchers, applied scientists, and linguists within Microsoft Research New York City (NYC), focused on guiding the responsible development and deployment of generative AI systems.

We specialize in the sociotechnical alignment of generative AI systems, with a particular focus on measuring risks, including risk systematization, risk annotation, dataset creation, and metric design.

Our work bridges research and practice, drawing from computer science, linguistics, social science, and statistics to address some of the most complex challenges in responsible AI.

As part of our mission, we collaborate closely with product teams and policy stakeholders to translate cutting-edge research into real-world impact.

We are looking for a Principal Applied Scientist to join our team and contribute to the development of foundational resources, drive research initiatives, and help shape the future of responsible AI.

We welcome candidates with expertise in linguistics research, experience working with generative AI systems, and an interest in evaluation, measurement, and the sociotechnical alignment of AI technologies.

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**

Your responsibilities include applying linguistics expertise to advance the sociotechnical alignment of generative AI systems.

Specifically, you will:

+ Integrate linguistic concepts into responsible AI research and applied science efforts.
+ Develop resources and tooling toidentify, measure, and mitigate AI risks.
+ Build andvalidateannotation guidelines and datasets for risk evaluation.
+ Collaborate with policy and engineering teams to systematize risk measurement approaches.
+ Generalize evaluation methods across diverse systems, use cases, and deployment contexts.
+ Contribute to interdisciplinary research projects that push the boundaries of risk measurement and model assessment.
+ Embody our culture (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/culture) and values (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/corporate-values) .

**Qualifications**

Required Qualifications:

+ Bachelor’s degree in linguistics or a related field (e.g., anthropology, sociology, philosophy, modern languages, education, information science) and 6+ years of experience working with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and/or Natural Language Processing (NLP).

This can include product experience, industry research, open-source contributions, or academic research (but not coursework)
+ OR Master’s degree in linguistics or a related field (e.g., anthropology, sociology, philosophy, modern languages, education, information science) and 4+ years of experience working with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and/or Natural Language Processing (NLP).

This can include product experience, industry research, open-source contributions, or academic research (but not coursework)
+ OR PhD in linguistics or a related field (e.g., anthropology, sociology, philosophy, modern languages, education, information science) and 3+ years of experience working with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and/or Natural Language Processing (NLP).

This can include product experience, industry research, open-source contributions, or academic research (but not coursework)
+ OR equivalent experience.
+ 5+ years of experience contributing to or driving peer-reviewed academic papers.
+ 5+ years of experience conducting research as part of an academic or industry research program.
+ 3+ years of experience with qualitative and quantitative linguistic data analysis.

Preferred Qualifications:

+ PhD in linguistics or a related field and 6+ years of experience working with AI, ML, and/or NLP.

This can include product experience, industry research, open-source contributions, or academic research (but not coursework)
+ OR equivalent experience.
+ 2+ years of experience presenting at top AI/ML conferences (e.g., KDD, SIGIR, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, RecSys, ACL, CIKM, CVPR, ICCV, etc.).
+ 3+ years of experience developing and deploying production systems, as part of a product team.
+ 5+ years of experience decomposing complex sociotechnical concepts into taxonomies and ontologies.
+ 5+ years of experience with qualitative and quantitative linguistic data analysis.

Applied Sciences IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 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 $188,000 - $304,200 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 25, 2025.

#Research

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 (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .

Required Skill Profession

Other General