Machine Learning Research Engineer

Do you want to be at the forefront of innovating the latest hardware designs to propel Microsoft's cloud growth? Are you seeking a unique career opportunity that combines both technical capabilities, cross team collaboration, with business insight and strategy? Join our Strategic Planning and Architecture (SPARC) team within Microsoft's Azure Hardware Systems & Infrastructure (AHSI) organization and be a part of the organization behind Microsoft's expanding Cloud Infrastructure and responsible for powering Microsoft's "Intelligent Cloud" mission.

The SPARC organization manages Azure's hardware roadmap from architecture concept through production for all of Microsoft's current and future on-line services. This role is for a highly motivated Machine Learning Research Engineer with a solid background in neural networks and hardware implementation. You will be involved with both model development, data type analysis, ML/HW co-design.

Responsibilities:

• Driving model/HW codesign
• Developing and analyzing novel NN architectures
• Inventing novel low-precision data formats
• Inventing novel model architectures
• Collaborating with data scientists and ML researchers
• Interfacing with HW architecture teams
• Interfacing with SW framework teams

Required Qualifications:

• Master's Degree in relevant field AND 1+ year(s) related research experience OR equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's Degree/PhD in Machine learning, Computer Architecture/Systems, High-Performance Computing or related areas
• 2+ years experience in ML systems/Model optimizations/Efficient model architecture
• Track record of original research and delivering novel results in ML systems area
• Hands-on experience with frameworks such as PyTorch/TensorFlow/TensorRT
• Deep knowledge of CNN/transformer architecture and optimization strategies – quantization, sparsity, NAS, sharding, KV Cache, Flash Attention
• Solid programming skills in Python/C/C++
• Experience in implementing low-level linear algebra/BLAS kernels and performance optimizations
• Outstanding communication skills

Microsoft is committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.