Overview
Join the Microsoft Research Catalyst Lab as a Principal Technical Program Manager, working at the center of frontier AI. You’ll collaborate directly with researchers in one of the world’s premier research labs, transforming breakthrough ideas into real, reliable, scalable capabilities used across Microsoft products. This role sits at the high‑impact intersection of research ↔ engineering ↔ product, where the work you do directly shapes what AI becomes next.
Focus Area You Will Work On
- Agentic Data Memory, e.g. GraphRAG
- Intersection of Agentic Data Memory and Security
What We’re Looking For
You might be a great fit if you:
- Love operating where research meets engineering — the space where new ideas become real systems.
- Feel energized by messy, open-ended problems where exploration and clarity are equally important.
- Care about performance, safety, correctness, and experience, not just cleverness.
- Communicate clearly, collaborate naturally, and debug anything with calm and rigor.
- Want to build systems that meaningfully advance what AI can do, not just iterate on what already exists.
You’ll join a team driven by curiosity, accountability, and the conviction that we are building something that truly moves the field forward, tackling problems that don’t even have names yet alongside people defining the state of the art.
If this excites you, we want to meet you.
At Microsoft, our mission—to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more—guides how we partner with customers to deliver trusted, impactful solutions. With a growth mindset culture, we innovate responsibly and measure success by shared progress—people, teams, and customers. Join us to do meaningful work that changes the world and helps shape what’s next for everyone.
Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end delivery of complex, multi-team technical programs bridging research, engineering, and product organizations for Catalyst Lab projects, including GraphRAG.
- Translate strategic objectives into clear programs with well-defined scope, success metrics, timelines, and deliverables.
- Partner with research scientists, engineers, and external partners to align stakeholders on priorities, dependencies, and trade-offs.
- Facilitate cross-organizational collaboration, clear communication, and synchronized execution — including risk assessments and mitigation plans.
- Drive data-informed decision making and progress reporting for both technical and executive audiences.
- Build repeatable program frameworks, tools, and templates that scale across future Catalyst initiatives.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree AND 6+ years experience in engineering, product/technical program management, data analysis, or product development OR equivalent experience.
- 3+ years of experience managing cross-functional and/or cross-team projects.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working in research environments or innovation labs where objectives span discovery, prototyping, and early-stage impact validation.
- Experience with modern software development lifecycles, data platforms, ML/AI systems, and tooling that supports research-to-production pipelines.
- Prior work involving external partnerships, ecosystem alignment, or community engagement.
- Hands-on experience developing rapid prototypes with AI
- Experience conveying complex information effectively to diverse stakeholder groups, from executives to non-technical customers
- Experience with creative storytelling of innovation through technical publications, podcasts, videos, and other media
#Research
Technical Program Management IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $139,900 - $274,800 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year.
Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay
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.
