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Microsoft UK • Cambridge, United Kingdom

Senior Systems Research Engineer - Research Engineering - MSR Cambridge

Employment type:  Full time
Salary:  £74,700 – £122,600 per annum
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Job Description

Overview

We are seeking a Systems Research Engineer to accelerate our Future AI Infrastructure research area. You will bring key skills and experience in operating systems, performance, distributed systems, CPUs, GPUs, and machine learning. Good systems research happens when you build things to uncover hidden assumptions – your implementation skills are at the heart of this. You will collaborate closely with researchers to identify, design and implement proof of concept solutions to some of the hardest future problems of AI infrastructure. You will partner with product teams to help land our research in a meaningful way, accelerating delivery of our lab’s research into shipping products used by millions of people world-wide.

This role is within the Research Engineering team at MSR Cambridge. Our team has broad experience spanning front-end, systems, networking and ML engineering at datacentre scale. We work across all the research areas in MSR Cambridge, deeply embedded in research projects.

Responsibilities

  • Combine strengths in computer systems research, and software engineering competence to contribute to the design and prioritisation of research activities.

  • Build prototypes of future AI systems to demonstrate research value, in some cases bringing these prototypes all the way to product-level readiness. You like getting things done.

  • Evaluate research prototypes and help write up results to communicate outcomes clearly.

  • Collaborate with researchers and product teams, helping with smooth technology transfer between them.

  • Reinforce a positive environment by applying best practices and high-quality engineering standards.

  • Gain deep expertise in one (or more) subareas of research, and general understanding of a broad area. Understand the relevant literature and applicable research techniques.

  • Contribute to academic publication of research outcomes.

  • Proactively ensure high standards of software security over research prototypes and library supply chains.

  • Understand and follow ethics and privacy policies relating to research processes and data handling, as appropriate.

Qualifications

Required

  • Masters degree in Computer Science or related area, or equivalent training and experience in research.

  • Proficient in collaborative software development in Python and lower-level languages.

  • Experience with one or more of operating systems, performance analysis, distributed systems, CPU and GPU architecture, or machine learning systems.

  • Experience of low-level systems and/or performance tuning trade-offs.

  • Excellent communication skills in English, both written and spoken, including the skill to communicate technical results and justify assumptions to diverse technical audiences.

  • Willingness and flexibility to operate in a highly agile and dynamic environment.

  • Demonstrated ability to work within large codebases.

Preferred

  • Doctorate (PhD) in Computer Science or related area, or equivalent training and experience in research.

  • Experience of cluster-based distributed data processing techniques

  • Experience with the internals of machine learning systems.

  • Demonstrated experience working within a multi-disciplinary team.

Research Sciences IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across United Kingdom is £ 74,700.00 - £ 122,600.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.

Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/united-kingdom-corporate-pay.html

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.

Apply now

Company benefits

Wellbeing allowance
Health insurance
Dental coverage
Gym membership
Mental health platform access
Buy or sell annual leave
Shared parental leave
Charity donation scheme
Employee assistance programme
Employee discounts
Volunteer days – 3 days a year
Fertility treatment leave
Open to compressed hours
Open to job sharing
Fertility benefits
Enhanced sick pay
Enhanced sick days
Compassionate leave
Travel insurance
20 days annual leave + bank holidays
Enhanced maternity leave – 26 weeks paid
Enhanced paternity leave – 6 weeks paid
Adoption leave – 24 weeks paid
Childcare credits
Carer’s leave – 4 weeks paid
Cycle to work scheme
Faith rooms
Annual bonus
Annual pay rises
Company car
Hackathons
Open to part-time employees
Pregnancy loss leave
Life insurance
Equity packages
Financial coaching
Relocation packages
Sabbaticals
Enhanced pension match/contribution
Family health insurance
Learning license
In house training
Personal development days
Pregnancy support

Working at Microsoft UK

Company employees:

Globally: 228,000

Gender diversity (m:f):

67:33

Hiring in countries

United Kingdom

Office Locations

Awards & Accreditations

3rd - Most Family Friendly Company

3rd - Most Family Friendly Company

Flexa awards 2026
Most Family Friendly Company

Top 10 - Most Family Friendly Company

Flexa awards 2025
Best Career Progression

Best Career Progression

Flexa awards 2025
Most flexible companies

Most flexible companies

Flexa100 2024

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