Principal Research Scientist

The AI for Good Lab is looking for machine learning professionals with strong experience in developing foundational language models (Large Language Models, Vision Language Models) to join a newly created office in Abu Dhabi. The Microsoft AI for Good Research Lab leverages the power of data, our cloud technology, data science talent, and the Microsoft brand to catalyze and inspire others to partner in solving the world’s greatest challenges. Over the past few years, the Lab has become a data and AI driven solution creator, storyteller and trusted advisor working closely with leaders across Microsoft, academia, NGOs, and all levels of government. Our mission is to be one of the top applied research and data visualization labs driving positive change in the world, inspiring and serving as a blueprint for others.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join the AI for Good team that is led by Microsoft’s Chief Data Scientist and Corporate Vice President. As a member of the AI for Good Lab, you will come to work every day knowing you are working on projects that help save lives, alleviate suffering, and restore human dignity. Your work will be a fusion of AI development, data engineering and collaboration with Microsoft’s partners, NGOs and government institutions. It is an unusual mix of skills, but you will have colleagues that are world-class applied researchers who have a genuine commitment to AI for Good. You will also have access to Microsoft’s technological resources and global scale to generate solutions to some of the most demanding and defining challenges of our time.

Our research philosophy encourages knowledge sharing so you will contribute to the AI for Good research community by publishing papers, collaborating with leading academic institutions, and speaking and participating at leading industry events.

Responsibilities

• Create LLMs for a variety of uses including specialized domains or under-resourced domains.
• Identify sources of data for use in artificial intelligence and statistical modeling.
• Work closely with AI research scientists, data analysts, data engineers, business and project stakeholders and incorporate their expertise into your analytical solutions.
• Partner with organizations outside Microsoft to help advance their efforts in addressing food security, environmental concerns, disaster resiliency, and health.
• Represent the Lab’s capabilities and projects to internal and external leadership audiences. This requires making written and oral presentations to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Advance the research agenda for AI For Good initiatives: Prepare technical papers and presentations, and publish them internally and externally.

Qualifications

• Doctorate in relevant field AND 3+ years related-research experience OR equivalent experience.

• Experience participating in a top conference in relevant-research domain. Experience publishing academic papers as a lead author or essential contributor. Doctorate in relevant field AND 5+ years related-research experience OR equivalent experience.
• Experience building artificial neural networks.
• 2+ peer-reviewed journal publications or conference presentations (preferably on LLMs).
• 2 years’ experience in delivering AI projects.
• 1 year of PyTorch.