Microsoft Research AI Frontiers lab is seeking applications for the position of Research Software Engineer – Generative AI to join our team in NY or Redmond.
In AI Frontiers, we believe the next chapter of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be shaped by reliable digital workers that can be first class citizens in agent-native organizations. This means shifting from a paradigm where humans do the work assisted by AI, to one where autonomous AI agents execute entire workflows, collaborating with humans and other agents and guided by human direction and oversight.
Our projects have been guided by this mission, such as our agentic reasoning models (Phi family), our latest Computer Use Model (Fara), our synthetic data generation pipeline (AgentInstruct), our agent frameworks and experiences (AutoGen, Magentic-One and Magentic-UI), as well as our agentic ecosystems (Magentic Marketplace).
Our ongoing research focuses on four large areas:
- Closing the capability gap of current agents by enhancing their reasoning, enabling continual learning and adaptation across various tasks and modalities.
- Closing the reliability gap of current agents through improved robustness and human interactions.
- Reimagining workflows for an agent-native world where autonomous agents collaborate seamlessly with each other and with humans.
- Creating rich end-to-end experiences that showcase these capabilities in real world agentic applications.
As a Research Software Engineer – Generative AI you will play a crucial role in developing, improving, and exploring the capabilities of Generative AI models and agentic applications. Your work will have a significant impact on the development of cutting-edge technologies, advancing state-of-the-art and creating practical solutions to real-world problems.
Responsibilities
- As Research Software Engineer in AI Frontiers, you will contribute to one of our core pillars working with researchers, engineers, and product groups to create research breakthroughs and realize your ideas in products and services used worldwide.
- You will create data, evaluation and training pipelines for training agentic models to reliably use computers, tools and complete tasks collaborating with other agents and humans
- You’ll showcase your system design thinking, understanding of both user-facing technologies and GenAI technologies to drive efficient, high-quality execution and communication, while launching innovative AI features.
- You will work with our Technical Program Management (PM) team to understand customer needs and our research portfolio to create compelling proof of concepts so customers can take advantage of our innovations
Qualifications
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, System Engineering or related field AND 2+ years’ technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, Python, OR equivalent experience.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, System Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, or related field AND 3+ years experience working in a software engineering team and/or shipping production code OR equivalent experience
- 4+ years of python experience.
- 2+ years’ experience working on GenAI infrastructure, products or prototypes.
- 2+ years architecting and implementing GenAI systems and/or the infrastructure for building these systems.
- Experience in developing and maintaining open-source projects. Providing a link to GitHub profile (if available) and/or code samples, is highly encouraged.
- Experience evaluating AI models and systems including creating benchmark datasets, evaluation pipelines, running and debugging experiments, and tracking improvements.
- Experience deploying or managing applications or infrastructure pipelines on a major cloud platform (e.g., Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform).
- Ability to collaborate, communicate effectively, and work as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
#MSRR
Software Engineering 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.
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
Software Engineering 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 $160,200 - $261,000 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.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field
- 2+ years technical engineering experience
- Experience coding in languages including Python
- Master's Degree in Computer Science or related field (preferred)
- 3+ years experience working in a software engineering team and/or shipping production code (preferred)
- 4+ years of Python experience (preferred)
- 2+ years experience working on GenAI infrastructure, products or prototypes (preferred)
- 2+ years architecting and implementing GenAI systems or infrastructure (preferred)
- Experience developing and maintaining open-source projects (GitHub/code samples encouraged) (preferred)
- Experience evaluating AI models and building benchmark datasets and evaluation pipelines (preferred)
- Experience deploying or managing applications or infrastructure on a major cloud platform (Azure, AWS, or GCP) (preferred)
- Ability to collaborate and communicate effectively on multi-disciplinary teams (preferred)
Microsoft Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Microsoft and has not been reviewed or approved by Microsoft.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is presented as broadly competitive overall, with clear role/level/location variation and an emphasis on using posted ranges and band information for apples-to-apples comparisons.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are described as a standout, highlighted by a strong 401(k) match structure and immediate vesting, plus additional plan features for tax-advantaged saving.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-oriented benefits are portrayed as a meaningful strength, with substantial paid parental leave and added supports like back-up care and adoption/surrogacy assistance.
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