Overview

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 Agentic Data Memory team at Catalyst Lab is hiring Research Interns to advance Artificial Intelligence (AI) and agentic systems. Our research spans graph-based methods, agent memory and data, workflows and harnesses, loop engineering, and evaluation.

You can learn more about Catalyst Lab and its projects at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/lab/catalyst-lab/projects/

Responsibilities

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.

Research Interns work on well-defined projects that encourage open exploration and collaboration, guided by dedicated mentors. The Research Internship concludes with a final presentation open to Microsoft employees and, ideally, a peer-reviewed scientific publication.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

Currently enrolled in a Doctorate Degree program in Computer Science 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.
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

1+ year(s) of research experience in natural language processing, information retrieval, machine learning, graph machine learning, or systems for AI, demonstrated through publications or preprints.
Experience building or evaluating LLM-based agents, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), knowledge graphs, or memory systems for agents is strongly preferred.
Experience designing benchmarks, evaluation protocols, or controlled experiments, including statistical analysis of results, is a significant plus.
1+ year(s) experience in Python and domain-relevant libraries and frameworks (e.g., PyTorch); familiarity with running experiments on GPU clusters or cloud infrastructure is a plus.
1+ year(s) experience in Calculus, Probability and Statistics and/or Machine Learning.

The base pay range for this internship is USD $6,810 - $13,480 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 $8,920 - $14,610 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

Microsoft accepts applications and processes offers for these roles on an ongoing basis throughout the academic calendar (September - April).

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.