Come join the team responsible for the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise. We recently released a new simulator to both critical acclaim and commercial success, but we’re only just starting on our journey with this new platform. We are looking for a Senior Data & Applied Scientist with strong business intelligence capabilities who is familiar with delivering insights and analysis that can impact key decisions for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

As Senior Data & Applied Scientist, you will work closely with producers, designers, and leadership within the Microsoft Flight Simulator team designing custom title telemetry and providing sustained and ad-hoc analysis on gameplay, monetization and standard business KPIs. To be successful in this role, your work will include defining and implementing best practices for modern analytics as well as researching and applying machine learning techniques. The ideal candidate for this role will embrace the mission of building experiences for a diverse audience and appreciates the value of inclusiveness within every facet of the work environment. With the right person, this role will help shape the future of Microsoft Flight Simulator and the experiences of millions of players.

Responsibilities

Recommend new architectural designs and enhancements to existing data systems to optimize for high speed, low latency reporting and self-service analytics while minimizing costs and ensuring compliance with GDPR requirements and other PII policies.
Work with game developers and producers to design gameplay analysis to enable investment and live ops decisions.
Use machine learning to create customer segmentation.
Assess impact of various decisions when there are multiple variables and potential impact may be difficult to isolate (e.g. long term impact of free content on engagement and monetization).
Deliver progression modeling, balance analysis, multiplayer performance, cheat detection, and social impact analysis.
Provide regular, timely reporting and performance monitoring to studio teams and key business stakeholders.
Provide actionable insights for future release and DLC development using standard business KPIs along with in-game telemetry events.
Create analysis on how prior decisions impacted metrics to enable the business team to forecast for key metrics like MAU, retention, conversion rates, etc.
Manage non-Microsoft vendors and coordinate with data scientists on other software development teams.

Qualifications

5+ years of experience with data analytics or business intelligence
5+ years of experience of Python, R, Go or other programming languages
Advanced working knowledge of data mining using SQL, ETL and Data Warehouses. Need to be able to formulate complex SQL queries and have experience working with BI and visualization tools
Excellent verbal, written and collaborative communication skills in a cross-team environment with the ability to translate complex information
Self-driven with ability to deliver on ambiguous projects with incomplete or rogue data

Preferred Experience:

Bachelor in Statistics / Math / Computer Science / Economics / Engineering
Experience working with Kusto, Azure SQL Servers, Hive or Cosmos
Experience using Azure Data Lake Analytics and/or Azure Data Factory
Experience with visualization tools like Power BI, Tableau, Business Objects, etc
Program management or business intelligence experience
Experience playing simulation (ideally flight simulation) games

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.