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Director of Applied Research (IC) - Extreme Retrieval

Microsoft· Applied Sciences
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Bangalorefull-timePosted 1mo ago

About the role

Microsoft Research India seeking a hands-on, technically strong individual contributor to lead applied research for a high-impact project specializing in large-scale machine learning for enterprise and consumer retrieval, including RAG powering Copilots, and web-scale retrieval for search and recommendations.

Responsibilities

  • Play the role of a technically strong ML+DS Lead who takes overall responsibility for cutting-edge retrieval models.
  • Bridge various teams across research and engineering and guide them in overcoming challenges in real-world scenarios.
  • Co-lead culture, vision, strategy and execution while identifying new opportunities for impact.
  • Manage strategic partnerships and represent the project to senior Microsoft leadership and external collaborators.
  • Drive talent acquisition, attracting top ML talent from academia, industry and startups.
  • Optimize GPU infrastructure and advocate for resources at internal committees.
  • Oversee engineering for cutting-edge ML codebases, bridging developers and ML researchers to deliver robust, scalable systems.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, or related fields.
  • 10+ years of deep technical experience in machine learning and/or information retrieval; able to train ML models on very large-scale data and apply them to real-world scenarios.
  • 3+ years of experience in technical engineering leadership, guiding multiple teams in delivering complex ML/IR systems.
  • Proven ability to engage with engineering teams, understand architectures and map research to engineering needs.
  • Exceptional communication skills; comfortable with senior executives and external partners.
  • Startup-like agility, independence, and a drive for impact and quality.
  • Ability to influence peers and seniors and guide teams not reporting to you; deliver success as a lead individual contributor.

Skills

Required:Machine learning leadershipInformation retrievalCross-functional collaboration
Last updated Aug 27, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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