We are seeking a Principal Researcher with a background in NLP. The successful candidate will have a passion for empowering spreadsheet users in the context of interactions with LLMs. They will join Calc Intelligence (https://aka.ms/CalcIntel) , a multidisciplinary research project that focuses on the future of work with data. The project team works closely with others across Microsoft, including RiSE (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/group/research-software-engineering-rise/) (MSR Redmond), Excel and PROSE (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/group/prose/) . Calc Intelligence’s impact on many millions of customers features in the history of research collaborations (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/innovation-by-and-beyond-the-numbers-a-history-of-research-collaborations-in-excel/) with Microsoft Excel, the Microsoft Wall of Fame (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/wall-of-fame/calc-ts-in-excel-for-the-web/) , and even XKCD (https://xkcd.com/2453/) .

This is an exceptional opportunity for an experienced researcher and leader in their respective field to drive ambitious research with an established research group, in collaboration with teams across Microsoft and especially with Excel. The successful candidate will also be expected to share research insights with, and provide strategic guidance to, product teams.

Key research challenges that we are currently tackling include, but are not limited to: How can we help users critically think about their data-driven decisions by leveraging AI affordances? How can we generate code that is safe and interpretable for end-users? How can we extract useful tables from long documents? How can we evaluate code-generating systems?

We are looking for candidates who have:

• A drive for real world impact, demonstrated by a passion to build and release prototypes;

• Demonstrated track record of project and team leadership, and excellent management skills;

• Demonstrated track record of influential projects and publications in top-tier machine learning, NLP or other relevant venues (e.g. AAAI, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, EMNLP, NAACL, ACL, and comparable);

• Demonstrated interdisciplinary experience in applied machine learning, natural language processing, and human computer interaction;

• Experience in model development, finetuning, evaluation, NL 2 Code;

• A passion for research in the domain of spreadsheets or other data-centric tasks;

• A passion for innovation and creativity, evidenced by the ability to generate novel ideas, approaches, and solutions;

• A team player mindset, characterized by effective communication, collaboration, and feedback skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead a collaborative research effort to advance a long-term research agenda with the multidisciplinary Calc Intelligence team, with a focus on empowering end-users in their work with data;

• Identify gaps and determine which state-of-the-art insights, tools, technologies, or methods to incorporate into research pipelines to ensure quality, scientific rigor, and ethical best practices;

• Collaborate with other researchers and engineers across the company to amplify the team’s impact;

• Publish research findings in peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and other relevant venues, and present research results to internal and external stakeholders;

• Mentor and guide researchers and engineers in their research and development efforts.

Qualifications

Required:

• PhD in Computer Science or a relevant field, or equivalent experience, AND related research experience.

• A proven track record of research leadership and project management involving multiple stakeholders;

• An established research program demonstrated by several high-impact journal and/or conference publications or other forms of outstanding impact;

• A track record of mentoring researchers;

• Ability to collaborate, communicate effectively, and present research findings.

Preferred:

• Demonstrable ability to define an ambitious, original research agenda;

• Experience leading or working in a multidisciplinary team;

• Keen interest in real-world applications and impact;

• Experience in solving deep research challenges relating to LLMs in data-centric tasks;

• Experience presenting to a wide range of diverse audiences.

#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) .