Applied Scientist II – LLM and Transformer Optimization

Job Description

We have an exciting opportunity for Applied Scientist II to drive and lead implementation of state-of-the-art AI algorithms for specific and general-purpose silicon on next generation devices and operating systems. This is a hands-on team lead task. You will have collaboration opportunities throughout the organization and will be building new stuff that really works and has millions of users.

The Microsoft Applied Sciences Group incubates disruptive technologies for Microsoft’s next-gen hardware products and is working on several exciting projects that will shape how computers and other devices perceive the user and the user’s environment. Operating as a startup within the company, this team works closely with several research and product teams to bring compelling new experiences to the market. A lot of these experiences will be powered by machine learning – and as part of this team, you will have the unique opportunity to work on almost every aspect of a shipping vision system: camera optics, sensors, data pipeline and of course, developing and implementing the algorithms that make magic happen!

AI is already disrupting how we access knowledge, and we are now on the cusp of rewriting how people interact with computers. Are you interested in being part of the cutting-edge team that does this?

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.

Responsibilities

• You will utilize the latest research to optimize, fine-tune, and customize LLMs for edge device inferencing.
• You will contribute to the technical design, architecture, development, and evaluation of foundation models.
• You will document ongoing work and share findings to foster innovation within the group. You will also adhere to ethics and privacy policies during research processes and information collection.
• You will collaborate with senior team members and integrate cutting-edge research. Additionally, you will gain a deep understanding of community methods and develop expertise in a specialized area.
• You will work closely with engineering and product development teams.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field practical experience working in a highly performant team in an academic or industrial research environment
• Advanced experience with PyTorch and Python
• Experience with building large language models
• Familiarity with Language models, transformers like BERT, GPT-3, Llama
• Experience with Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning methods for foundational models, LoRA, DoRA etc.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field and practical experience working in a highly performant team in an academic or industrial research environment.
• Experience with model quantization such as GPTQ, AWQ etc.
• Experience with distributed training libraries like DeepSpeed is a plus.
• Record of publications in top-tier conferences or journals (ICLR, ACL, ICML, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, TPAMI, etc.)
• Familiarity with AzureML, Azure DevOps and CI/CD

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.