Senior Data Scientist - Machine Learning

The Worldwide Incentive Compensation (WWIC) team’s mission is to enable strategy, motivate sellers and reward results. In pursuit of this mission, the team designs and implements variable incentive-based compensation plans for more than 30,000 sellers, sales leaders and consultants across Microsoft. We are the experts in Incentive Compensation at Microsoft that are responsible for aligning incentive plans and targets (quotas) to motivate seller behavior and drive the company's strategies. We are also the end-to-end owners of incentive compensation processes and data which include quota setting management, delivering timely and accurate pay-outs.

The Senior Data Scientist - Machine Learning will collaborate with key stakeholders across Business Operations & Sales Excellence, Finance, GSOC and Mint Engineering, Finance Data & Experiences (FD&E), Plan Design, analytics and the broader WWIC organization. This role will lead the development of an AI agent to centrally manage budget restatements and proactively identify opportunities for quota adjustments based on both role-specific and overall business performance and forecasts.

The Senior Data Scientist - Machine Learning should be detail-oriented, able to translate business context and requirements into quota modeling. Excels with machine learning algorithms, statistical analysis, forecast modeling and capable of deploying models in Azure. Ability to digest complex problems, formulate creative solutions and successfully land those solutions with business partners. This individual should have attention to detail and ability to make practical decisions in times of ambiguity. The candidate must also have proven ability to work effectively in a large, cross-geography, cross-business virtual team environment. Success for this role requires the individual to be proficient in communication, both written and verbal, and must be able to support answering questions from business partners.

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

Business Understanding and Impact

• Demonstrate good business acumen, work with business partners to understand data and define and solve business problems and primary objectives.

Data Preparation and Understanding

• Build data pipelines and reports for internal / external use
• Acquires data necessary for successful completion of the project plan. Proactively detects changes and communicates to senior leads.

Modeling and Statistical Analysis

• Leverages knowledge of machine learning solutions (e.g., classification, regression, clustering, forecasting, NLP, image recognition, etc.) and individual algorithms to identify the best approach to complete objectives.
• Effectively communicates with diverse audiences on data quality issues and initiatives.
• Develops a strong understanding of the Microsoft toolset in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) (e.g., Azure Machine Learning, Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Databricks).

Evaluation

• Understands relationship between selected models and business objectives. Ensures clear linkage between selected models and desired business objectives.
• Defines and designs feedback and evaluation methods.

Industry and Research Knowledge/Opportunity Identification

• Uses business knowledge and technical expertise to provide feedback to the engineering team to identify potential future business opportunities.

Business Management

• Collaborates with end customer and Microsoft internal cross-functional stakeholders to understand business needs. Formulates a roadmap of project activity that leads to measurable improvement in business performance metrics over time.

Customer/Partner Orientation

Applies a customer-oriented focus by understanding customer needs and perspectives, validating customer perspectives, and focusing on broader customer organization/context. Promotes and ensures customer adoption by delivering model solutions and supporting relationships.

• Embody our culture and values

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms and tools such as Azure Synapse, Azure DataBricks, Azure Data Factory and Azure ML Studio, with a focus on developing and deploying AI models.
• Programming experience in Python, SQL Server, and Kusto, including understanding and maintaining scalable data pipelines and machine learning models.
• Experience to translating business requirements into data-driven solutions using ML algorithms (e.g., classification, regression, clustering, NLP etc.).
• Experience collaborating across cross-functional teams and managing stakeholder communications.

• Experience in quota modeling, incentive compensation, or sales analytics and forecast is a plus.
• Experience mentoring junior data scientists and lead end-to-end ML lifecycle projects.
• 2+ year of experience in PowerBI reporting and SSAS is a plus
• 2+ year of experience in business planning

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.