Research Intern - AI Frontiers - Reasoning & Agentic Models

Research Internships at Microsoft provide a dynamic environment for research careers with a network of world-class research labs led by globally-recognized scientists and engineers, who pursue innovation in a range of scientific and technical disciplines to help solve complex challenges in diverse fields, including computing, healthcare, economics, and the environment.

The AI Frontier Lab at Microsoft Research is seeking candidates to advance the state of the art in agentic model capabilities -- creating models and agents that can reliably perform tasks across digital systems on behalf of humans,  combining automation, reasoning, and interaction capabilities to execute workflows end-to-end, leveraging both text-based environments (CLI tools, APIs, scripts, MCPs) and visual environments (GUI applications).

Our lab conducts cutting-edge research in AI and publishes findings in top-tier venue such as NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, and others. We release models and libraries in the open-source (e.g. Phi-4, Phi-4-reaoning, AgentInstruct, AutoGen, MagenticOne) while also working within Microsoft's ecosystem to ship our AI technologies in multiple products.

We seek Research Interns with demonstrated ability for technical work and a proven record of influential publications on Artificial Intelligence.

Research areas of particular interest for this team include, but are not limited to:

• Reinforcement learning approaches for improving logical and mathematical reasoning, tool use and computer use agents
• Developing novel training algorithms for enhancing reasoning and action taking efficiency and reliability 
• Exploring synthetic environment creation, multi-agent training and self-play for RL training
• Exploring scaling laws between test-time and training-time compute
• Advanced optimization techniques for efficient training of large-scale models

Our group takes a holistic approach to improving foundational models that includes a variety of data modalities (language, vision, multi-modal, and structured data) and modern model architectures.

Research Interns put inquiry and theory into practice. Alongside fellow doctoral candidates and some of the world’s best researchers, Research Interns learn, collaborate, and network for life. Research Interns not only advance their own careers, but they also contribute to exciting research and development strides. During the 12-week internship, Research Interns are paired with mentors and expected to collaborate with other Research Interns and researchers, present findings, and contribute to the vibrant life of the community. Research internships are available in all areas of research, and are offered year-round, though they typically begin in the summer.

Required Qualifications

• Accepted or currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science or related STEM field.
• At least 1 year of experience with deep learning and large language model training.

Other Requirements

• Research Interns are expected to be physically located in their manager’s Microsoft worksite location for the duration of their internship.
• In addition to the qualifications below, you’ll need to submit a minimum of two reference letters for this position as well as a cover letter and any relevant work or research samples. After you submit your application, a request for letters may be sent to your list of references on your behalf. Note that reference letters cannot be requested until after you have submitted your application, and furthermore, that they might not be automatically requested for all candidates. You may wish to alert your letter writers in advance, so they will be ready to submit your letter. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven expertise in language model pre-training, post-training, or reinforcement learning.
• Proven publication record in top-tier conferences.
• Demonstrated ability to develop original research and perform hands-on research in a collaborative and dynamic environment. 

The base pay range for this internship is USD $6,710 - $13,270 per month. 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 $8,760 - $14,360 per month.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-intern-pay

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

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.