Senior Language Engineer

Job ID: 200045677Posted: 2026-07-30Location: United States, Washington, RedmondSalary: USD $119,800 - $234,700 per yearEmployment type: Full-TimeWork site: 4 days / week in-officeRole type: Individual ContributorTravel: Less than 25%Profession: Research, Applied, & Data SciencesDiscipline: Applied SciencesCompany: MicrosoftOverviewMicrosoft AI Experiences is pushing the boundaries of technology. We are creating unique, beautiful and powerful products that will change lives. As a small, friendly, fast-moving team, we support each other to do the best work of our lives, always looking to break new ground, fast. We are proud of what we build, how we build it and that our products will define the AI era. We run lean, obsess about users, and always make our decisions based on the evidence. We ship regularly, so your work will have real and immediate impact. It’s a time of huge change in the AI landscape, and this role will put you right in the heart of it. We’re on the lookout for a detail-oriented Senior Language Engineer to help build the next wave of capabilities of our personal AI, Copilot. Language is an increasingly important modality for how we interact with computers. As a Language Engineer on the Copilot team, you will be responsible for how Copilot wields language. You will collaboratively work with data scientists, AI researchers, engineers, designers, and product managers to discover issues, define policy, evaluate language, collect data and ultimately improve the Large Language Models that power Copilot. We’re looking for someone with an abundance of positive energy, empathy, and kindness, in addition to being highly effective. The right candidate takes the initiative and enjoys building world-class consumer experiences and products in a fast-paced environment.  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.  Starting January 26, 2026, Microsoft AI Experiences employees who live within a 50- mile commute of a designated Microsoft office in the U.S. or 25-mile commute of a non-U.S., country-specific location are expected to work from the office at least four days per week. This expectation is subject to local law and may vary by jurisdiction.ResponsibilitiesCraft and refine the context and prompts used to steer, train and evaluate the language models that power Microsoft Copilot for emotional and intellectual use cases. Create evaluations and establish evaluation frameworks to measure both technical/practical performance and non-deterministic performance like EQ Research & implement novel prompting techniques Spin the data flywheel to extract insights from extensive language datasets to uncover issues and opportunities to improve model response quality. Accountable to own the status of key projects, proactively identifying risks and proposing solutions to ensure timely delivery.  QualificationsRequired Qualifications Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Philosophy, Linguistics, Psychology, Literature, or related discipline AND 1+ years experience in context engineering with foundational software engineering knowledge. 3+ years experience working in a fast-paced environment, managing multiple priorities, and adapting to changing requirements and deadlines. Hands-on experience with prompt design, context window management, and model evaluation. Preferred Qualifications2+ years of experience shipping consumer-facing products. You’ve brought products to market, collected user feedback, defined success metrics and iteratively improved products. 1+ years of experience in building LLM applications with familiarity in agent and orchestration frameworks, tool use, LLM evaluations and driving efficiency improvements. Technical depth in software development, data science and machine learning. While you are not expected to write code on the critical path, you’re able to navigate and contribute to code repositories to implement context engineering improvements and write LLM scorers and classifiers to evaluate model response quality. Applied Sciences 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: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.