Overview
As a Member of Technical Staff - Machine Learning, you will work to create LLM models for general purpose capabilities and for products. You may be responsible for developing new methods to train core LLM capabilities (including agentive), collecting data, evaluating LLMs, creating data flywheels, tooling for LLM training/evals, writing production quality code, and creating new user-facing features. You should be comfortable creating Reinforcement Learning data, fine tuning, or training classifiers or engineering prompts to create SOTA foundation models and support Microsoft products and the Cloud API. We’re looking for someone with experience in machine learning, software engineering, as well as an effective communicator and great teammate. The right candidate takes the initiative, is user-centered and enjoys building world-class AI experiences and products in a fast-paced environment.
Starting January 26, 2026, MAI employees are expected to work from a designated Microsoft office at least four days a week if they live within 50 miles (U.S.) or 25 miles (non-U.S., country-specific) of that location. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction. ** Microsoft Superintelligence Team**
This role is part of Microsoft AI's Superintelligence Team. The MAIST is a startup-like team inside Microsoft AI, created to push the boundaries of AI toward** Humanist Superintelligence—ultra-capable systems that remain controllable, safety-aligned, and anchored to human values.** Our mission is to create AI that amplifies human potential while ensuring humanity remains firmly in control. We aim to deliver breakthroughs that benefit society—advancing science, education, and global well-being.
We’re also fortunate to partner with incredible product teams giving our models the chance to reach billions of users and create immense positive impact. If you’re a brilliant, highly-ambitious and low ego individual, you’ll fit right in—come and join us as we work on our next generation of models!
Responsibilities
- Own and pursue a research agenda to improve model capability and performance for agentive application.
- Collaborate closely with the other research and product teams, from pretraining to model hosting to unlock new model capabilities.
- Build robust evaluations for tracking modeling improvements.
- Design, implement, test, and debug code across our research stack.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python
- OR equivalent experience.
Additional Qualifications:
- Doctorate in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Human-Centered AI or related field AND 2+ year(s) experience (e.g., finetuning models with supervision or reinforcement learning, understanding and fixing data quality and curation, working with collaborators on creating new products).
- OR Master's Degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field AND 5+ years experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, developing and debugging models, creating infrastructure for AI-powered products).
- OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Machine Learning, Physics, or related field AND 8+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying machine learning techniques and driving product direction).
- Demonstrated engineering experience or research experience (e.g. creating or leading the creation of a feature in a different company, complex graduate work, research papers, or other experience).
- Experience prompting, evaluating, and working with large language models.
- Experience writing production-quality Python code.
Software Engineering IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $163,000 - $296,400 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 $220,800 - $331,200 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
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
Microsoft 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.**