Principal Research Scientist
Shanghai, China
Date posted
Aug 26, 2025
Job number
1861101
Work site
Up to 50% work from home
Travel
0-25 %
Role type
Individual Contributor
Profession
Research, Applied, & Data Sciences
Discipline
Research Sciences
Employment type
Full-Time
Overview
The Data and AI team in Microsoft CoreAI is working on the future of AI for Developers! We are a diverse, entrepreneurial and multi-disciplinary group of scientists, researchers and engineers with passion for using AI to improve the productivity of millions of developers around the world. We have released AI for code advancements in Github Copilot through VSCode, Visual Studio, Github.com and Azure.
We are seeking an entrepreneurial and creative Principal Research Scientist to lead cutting-edge projects from concept to product. In this role, you will collaborate with scientists, engineers, and designers across Microsoft Research, Microsoft product teams, and GitHub. You will have the opportunity to build and train state-of-the-art models, apply and advance techniques for leveraging LLMs in software engineering, including RAG and evaluation, and partner closely with developer product teams to run large scale experiments, evaluate results, and continuously improve AI solutions.
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.
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:
- Doctorate in relevant field AND 3+ years related-research experience OR equivalent experience.
- Strong academic work and professional experience in statistics, machine learning, including deep learning, NLP, econometrics.
- Experience in building cloud-scale systems and experience working with open-source stacks for data processing and data science is desirable.
- Experience with LLMs in natural language, AI for code or related fields
- Experience in productizing AI and collaborating with multidisciplinary teams.
Preferred Qualifications:
- PhD degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Physics/Math, or related fields.
- Experience in productizing machine learning models is desirable.
- Excellent communication skills, ability to write and present research papers.
- Strong teamwork and collaboration skills.
Ability 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:
Microsoft Cloud Background Check: This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.
#DevDiv Shanghai & DDJL
Responsibilities
- Lead the development and evaluation of state-of-the-art models for code completion and editing, pushing the boundaries of code understanding, generation, fix and review.
- Develop retrieval-augmented systems that improve a model’s awareness of large and complex codebases, enabling context-rich code assistance.
- Design and prototype efficient inference algorithms to enable fast, interactive code generation experiences at scale.
- Collaborate across disciplines with product teams across Microsoft and Github
- Stay up to date with the research literature and product advances in AI for software engineering
Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.
Industry leading healthcare
Educational resources
Discounts on products and services
Savings and investments
Maternity and paternity leave
Generous time away
Giving programs
Opportunities to network and connect
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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.