AI Engineer

Fully proficient

Career Explorer · Research, AI & Data · Generative AI Engineering

IC2 · Professional / IntermediateIndividual contributorProfessional / Intermediate

Standard where business need supports the level

What the role involves

Autonomy: Works independently on defined work
Scope: Features, analyses, cases, campaigns, accounts or processes
Time horizon: Weeks to months
Expertise and judgement: Selects appropriate methods; solves routine-to-moderate problems
Expected impact: Owns complete deliverables and predictable outcomes

Expected skills (22)

Grouped as human, professional and technical. Target proficiency uses the P1–P5 scale, and each row says what that level means for that particular skill.

Human (10)

Skill	Importance	Target	What that level looks like
Accountability Personal Effectiveness	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Active listening Communication & Influence	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Collaboration Collaboration & Leadership	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Critical thinking Thinking & Judgment	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Customer empathy Personal Effectiveness	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Learning agility Thinking & Judgment	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Ownership Personal Effectiveness	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Problem solving Thinking & Judgment	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Verbal communication Communication & Influence	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Written communication Communication & Influence	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.

Professional (1)

Skill	Importance	Target	What that level looks like
Business acumen Business & Strategy	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.

Technical (11)

Skill	Importance	Target	What that level looks like
Statistical analysis Data, Analytics & AI	Core	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Business intelligence Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Data governance Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Data modeling Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Data visualization Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Experimental design Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
MLOps Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Machine learning Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Predictive modeling Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
Responsible AI Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.
SQL Data, Analytics & AI	Supporting	P2	Applies the skill independently in common situations and knows when to escalate.

Career ladder

Reached from

Associate AI EngineerIC1

Next steps

Senior AI EngineerIC3IC promotion
Move from defined independent work to ambiguous, complex ownership; deepen judgment, mentor others and improve team practices.

Possible when people-management capability and an organizational need exist; no automatic IC-to-M equivalence.

What changes to advance

Move from defined independent work to ambiguous, complex ownership; deepen judgment, mentor others and improve team practices.

Source: SFIA; Microsoft Careers · JF0069-IC2