Research Intern

About the Role

Research Internships at Microsoft provide a dynamic environment for research careers with a network of world-class research labs. The Office of Applied Research seeks research interns to conduct state-of-the-art applied research, which is impact-driven and applies empirical techniques to real-world problems. The Office of Applied Research focuses on frontier Artificial Intelligence (AI) model development and human-centered AI for the enterprise AI space, working closely with research and product partners.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct state-of-the-art applied research.
• Apply empirical techniques to real-world problems.
• Collaborate with fellow doctoral candidates and researchers.
• Present findings.
• Contribute to the community.
• Collaborate with mentors and other researchers on research projects.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Experience in Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Reinforcement Learning (RL), Learning from human feedback, and Human-centered AI.
• Expertise in areas such as reinforcement learning, model mid- and post-training, continual learning, differential privacy, human-AI collaboration, or the development and evaluation of enterprise AI agents.
• Experience with learning from user feedback in real-world deployments.
• 1+ year(s) of experience in conducting research and writing peer-reviewed publications (preferred).
• Ability to think unconventionally to derive creative and innovative solutions (preferred).
• Ability to collaborate effectively with your mentor and others in Microsoft on research projects (preferred).
• Demonstrated interpersonal and communication skills, cross-group, and cross-culture collaboration skills (preferred).

Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a Doctorate Degree program in Computer Science, Information Science, Statistics, Information Systems, Economics, Operation Research or a related STEM field.

Other Requirements:

• Research Interns are expected to be physically located in their manager’s Microsoft worksite location for the duration of their internship.
• Submission of a minimum of two reference letters, a cover letter, and any relevant work or research samples is required.

Research areas of interest include (actively conducting research in at least one is preferred):

• Collaborative or Multi-party AI Agents (e.g., AI teammates)
• Mid- and post-training for LLMs / Agents
• Learning from user interaction or feedback
• Synthetic data generation for LLM evaluation and fine-tuning
• Understanding, verifying, or evaluating LLMs outputs
• Differential privacy for LLM and data
• Continual Learning / Test-time Training
• Agents (e.g., Memory, Goal management, Inter-Agent conversations)
• Multi Agent Simulations (e.g., evaluating or training AI agents in collaborative settings)
• Forward deployment for enterprise AI