CMD Labs - Applied Scientist

Overview

Microsoft Teams is the hub for teamwork that integrates all the people, content, and tools your team needs to be more engaged and effective. It is core to Microsoft’s modern work, modern life & modern education value prop. We are reinventing the way people communicate and work together across the globe.  
We are building the next generation of proactive agents in Microsoft Teams – and the AI that powers these. These agents can take part in meetings, work for you in the background, and communicate like another colleague. We are looking to hire an applied scientist to join our team and help bring these products – and their models - Teams. We lead post-training efforts in this space, and work closely with feature teams across new innovations including conversational AI, meeting facilitation, and real-time understanding of multi-modal signals. 
You will partner with research, product, and engineering teams to invent and deliver the future of live communication and productivity. Your work will also impact other product groups, including MAI and Microsoft Copilot. Your work will have a direct impact on product – but as an applied science team, we also encourage exploration, and publication / patents where possible.
This role is based in Cambridge (United Kingdom).

You should apply if you are someone who:
•    Has solid experience with the deep technical aspects of research and engineering in Artificial Intelligence, Large Language Models, Machine Learning.
•    Has an interest in real time systems – building AI that can work fast, and with multimodal data.
•    Can communicate clearly complex technical concepts, as well as product needs and priorities.
•    Thrives in an environment where people collaborate across different disciplines, teams and geographies to deliver innovation to customers.
•    Can navigate uncertainty and create clarity and focus to execute towards a common vision.

Our culture is inclusive and collaborative; our team members come from diverse backgrounds, are respectful to one another and achieve impact by building on each other’s strengths and skills. We focus our energy on AI projects that are likely to have high impact on our products and bring high value to our customers. Our team has a strong sense of bias for action and accountability and provides its members with many opportunities for learning and career growth

Responsibilities

• Research, design, post-train and implement state-of-the-art multimodal models with the aim to support human communication and pro-active agents in Teams.
• Prepare datasets, design and implement metrics for real world scenarios in partnership with product teams and end users. 
• Optimize LLMs for efficiency and performance.
• Collaborate closely with other groups (research, engineering and product groups) within the wider Microsoft organization, to create the next generation of AI innovation in our products and services.
• Embody Microsoft culture and values.

Qualifications

Required

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field – or related industry experience.
• 2+ years practical ML Engineering and Python coding experience leveraging PyTorch, TensorFlow or similar framework, within large code repositories and in collaboration with additional team members.
• 2+ years’ practical experience in designing, training or fine-tuning / post-training transformer-based models or LLMs
• 2+ years’ experience of working with language, transcription, audio or multimodal applications (e.g., combining audio and video, text and audio).
• Excellent analytical, coding, communication, and collaborative skills.

 

Preferred

• PhD in Computer Science, Mathematics, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field.
• Industry experience delivering real-world solutions[DC1.1].
• Experience with large-scale distributed training, post-training and LLM deployment in production.
• Experience with reinforcement learning of language models and other model optimization techniques.
• Experience with designing and collecting multimodal data to support training large language models. 
• Experience with AML/ADO pipelines and CI tools.
• System development skills spanning rapid prototypes to production systems with complex dependencies.

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

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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.