Overview

As location intelligence becomes increasingly central to personalized and trustworthy user experiences, the Microsoft Location Service team is advancing the quality, scale, and impact of location based insights across Microsoft. Our technology powers products including Bing, Ads, Azure Maps, Content Feeds, Copilot, and other Microsoft services, enabling context aware experiences at global scale.

We are seeking a Senior Applied Scientist to advance Microsoft's location intelligence through large scale data driven modeling, geospatial analysis, and rigorous experimentation. In this role, you will design and apply advanced analytical and AI enabled techniques to improve the accuracy, reliability, and scalability of location inference systems used in production. You will work with large scale datasets and diverse signals to develop algorithms and models that enhance location prediction and geospatial understanding, partnering closely with engineering teams to translate research ideas into robust, production ready systems. Success in this role requires strong problem formulation, disciplined experimentation, and the ability to rapidly learn new domains in an AI accelerated development environment, with opportunities to contribute to location inference, large scale location graph modeling, and geospatial intelligence across Microsoft products.

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.  

Responsibilities

• Formulate complex and ambiguous location intelligence problems into clear hypotheses, success metrics, and evaluation strategies that directly inform product decisions and improvements.
• Design, execute, and analyze rigorous experiments and evaluations to measure the impact of models, algorithms, and system changes on user experience and product quality.
• Develop data driven models, algorithms, and analytical approaches for location inference and geospatial understanding, with a focus on robustness, generalization, and real world applicability.
• Drive product impact by translating scientific insights into actionable recommendations that influence feature design, system behavior, and roadmap prioritization.
• Partner closely with product managers and engineers to ensure applied science solutions are aligned with product goals and are successfully integrated into production systems.
• Analyze large scale data to identify root causes of quality issues, quantify trade offs, and propose evidence based improvements that improve customer outcomes.
• Communicate findings, trade offs, and recommendations clearly to technical and non technical stakeholders, enabling informed decisions and alignment across teams.
• Provide applied science leadership through reviewing experimental designs and methodologies, mentoring others on rigorous evaluation practices, and adopting AI enabled workflows to increase scientific and product impact.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Strong foundation in algorithms, data structures, statistics, and data analysis, with the ability to apply advanced techniques to complex, real world problems.
• Demonstrated experience developing data driven or model based solutions that influence or support production systems.
• Proficiency in at least one general purpose programming language, with the ability to adapt quickly to new languages, frameworks, and AI assisted development tools.
• Proven ability to formulate ambiguous problems, take ownership of solutions, and deliver meaningful impact at scale.
• Strong collaboration skills, with the ability to work independently while partnering effectively across teams and disciplines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex technical and analytical concepts to diverse audiences.
• High learning agility, including the ability to rapidly understand new domains, systems, and problem spaces and apply that knowledge effectively.

Preferred Qualifications:
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Experience designing or influencing large scale data processing, modeling, or inference systems.
• Demonstrated strength in analytical modeling and experimentation applied to high impact product or system challenges.
• Deep proficiency in C# and the .NET ecosystem, or comparable experience in similar modern programming environments.
• Experience influencing technical or analytical direction across cross functional, multi team environments.

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,requesting accommodations.