Senior Data Scientist

Do you thrive on solving complex problems, uncovering insights, and shaping innovative solutions that make a real impact? Are you excited by the challenge of turning data into actionable strategies for some of the world's most influential organizations? At Microsoft, we believe in empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

Our team embraces a growth mindset, values authenticity, and encourages diverse perspectives. We combine technical excellence with creativity to deliver life-changing innovations that impact billions globally. If you're passionate about machine learning, AI, and driving business transformation through data, this is your opportunity to lead and inspire.

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will own end-to-end delivery of strategic data science projects and partner with customers and internal teams to design and implement advanced analytics and AI solutions that create measurable business impact. This hands on role blends deep technical expertise with consulting and stakeholder engagement, enabling you to influence decisions and guide adoption of data-driven strategies.

At Microsoft, our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more guides how we partner with customers to deliver trusted, impactful solutions. With a growth mindset culture, we innovate responsibly and measure success by shared progress people, teams, and customers. Join us to do meaningful work that changes the world and helps shapewhat'snext for everyone.

Business Understanding & Impact

• Own delivery of complex, high-impact data science and AI solutions for strategic consulting engagements.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define business problems and translate them into actionable AI-driven solutions.
• Develop project plans, assess risks, and ensure alignment with strategic objectives and ethical AI principles.
• Identify opportunities to leverage generative AI for business transformation and innovation.

Data Preparation & Modeling

• Acquire, clean, and prepare large datasets for modeling.
• Build and deploy predictive and prescriptive models using modern machine learning techniques.
• Design, develop, and integrate generative AI applications (e.g., text, image, multimodal) into client workflows and solutions.
• Write efficient, maintainable code and ensure scalability for production environments.
• Implement prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and evaluation strategies for large language models and other foundation models.

Insight, Communication & Enablement

• Present findings to senior stakeholders using compelling storytelling and visualizations.
• Simplify complex ML/AI concepts for diverse audiences to drive understanding and adoption.
• Document best practices for AI application development and share knowledge across teams.

Collaboration & Consulting

• Act as a trusted advisor to internal teams and customers, ensuring solutions meet business needs.
• Promote responsible AI practices, including fairness, transparency, and explainability in model and application development.
• Stay current with emerging AI technologies, frameworks, and tools to continuously enhance solution capabilities.

Required/minimum qualifications:

• Doctorate in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 1+ year(s) data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)
  • OR Master's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)
  • OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications:

• Doctorate in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)
  • OR Master's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)
  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 7+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Proven consulting and stakeholder engagement skills with proven ability to influence decisions.
• Proficiency in Python and SQL; experience with cloud platforms (Azure preferred).
• Knowledge of Responsible AI principles and ethical data practices.
• Experience with broader software engineering lifecycle practices, including version control, testing, DevOps, and production deployment of Machine Learning (ML) solutions.
• Experience with AI-assisted coding practices and specification-driven development.
• 1 to 3 years of Consulting (including System Integrator, Technical Consulting or Management Consulting) experience.
• Experience developing and deploying Agentic AI solutions

Data Science 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.