Senior AI/Machine Learning Engineer, Minecraft

Overview

At Mojang Studios, the creators of Minecraft, we are on a mission to build a better world through the power of play.

Why play? Well, play is at the heart of everything we do. It's the blocky backbone of our games, the core of our development philosophy, and even the origin of our name. From the relentless experimentation of our endlessly inspiring community to the classrooms where Minecraft has become an essential teaching tool, play is the bedrock of our existence.

We enable millions to create and play together, connect people across the globe, and foster a community that is among the most active and passionate in the world. Our community is global and incredibly diverse. When we are developing anything within our franchise, we keep this in mind. We want everyone to not only feel included in Minecraft, but also to see themselves in what we make. Our goal is for the Mojang Studios team to be as diverse as our community.

The Senior AI/Machine Learning Engineer at Mojang Studios will support the strategy, development, and execution of AI products that will unlock increased productivity and advanced capabilities inside and outside of the game. This role will apply expertise in AI & ML algorithms, frameworks, and architectures as well as data and cloud infrastructure knowledge to guide and build solutions for a variety of teams and data modalities across the studio. This is a critical role to executing our AI strategies across workflows, internal tools, and player experiences

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

In the end, it's the people of Mojang Studios that make this place truly special. When you join, you'll find yourself in the company of incredibly bright, warm, and creative individuals - all united and working toward a single goal. Come help us reach it!

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and productionize AI (Artificial Intelligence)/GenAI (Generative Artificial Intelligence) services and platform components for internal and player-facing experiences across Minecraft and other titles.
• Create reusable AI building blocks and reference integrations to accelerate teams and drive studio-wide AI enablement.
• Own cloud infrastructure & MLOps (Machine Learning Operations): data pipelines, training/evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and operational support.
• Improve reliability, performance, and cost with guardrails, fallback paths, SLOs (Service Level Objectives), and actionable runbooks.
• Engineer for security, privacy, and compliance through secure data access patterns and threat modeling.
• Embed responsible AI principles (fairness, transparency, player safety) into system design and operations.
• Collaborate cross-discipline to solve product problems and deliver measurable business/player impact; participate in design/code reviews and pair programming.
• Document and communicate: share learnings to upskill the studio and present findings/opportunities to leadership.
• Embody our Culture & Values

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Doctorate in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 1+ year(s) data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results) OR Master's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results) OR Bachelor's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)
  • OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in AI/ML (Machine Learning) principles, frameworks, and tools (e.g., PyTorch, Generative AI, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), with experience in big data technologies like Spark (PySpark) and Databricks.
• Doctorate in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 3+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results) OR Master's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 5+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results) OR Bachelor's Degree in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or related field AND 7+ years data-science experience (e.g., managing structured and unstructured data, applying statistical techniques and reporting results)
  
  • OR equivalent experience.
• Games industry knowledge
• Skilled in Python (C#/TypeScript a plus), modern dev practices (Agile, GitHub, Azure DevOps), and designing, deploying, and monitoring cloud infrastructure for AI systems.
• Familiar with multiple data modalities and ML domains: computer vision, audio, predictive modeling, NLP (Natural Language Processing), time series forecasting, graph networks, deep learning, and reinforcement learning.
• Verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for non-technical stakeholders.

Data Science IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $158,400 - $258,000 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
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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.