Research Intern - Bioinformatics

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.

Our organization, Microsoft Health Futures, is an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and physicians. Come join a unique vibrant environment that features cutting-edge academic research, enterprise software development, and real-world delivery, with close feedback loops and rapid iterations among all three. 

The discovery and/or synthesis of new therapeutics remains a key challenge for improving human health, and computation and machine learning/AI are playing an increasingly important role therein. Many of the necessary ingredients are available -- massive scale genomic biobanks, curated resources cataloging well established variant-gene-disease-phenotype relationships, large corpora of biomedical literature detailing decades of clinical and biomedical inquiry -- yet the tasks of dynamically integrating the information from these resources and effectively reasoning on them remain at an early stage. 

Bioinformatics, biomedical natural language processing (NLP), and generative AI can play key roles in this transformation by discerning knowledge from data and separating signal from noise. We are looking for a Research Intern with experience working with biological data to investigate scientific questions and a research background in computational biology, bioinformatics, and/or biomedical NLP. We are open to candidates in all computational aspects of this work, including genomic foundation models, generative chemistry/biology, pathway analysis, molecular interaction modeling, variant effect prediction, variant interpretation, decision support, functional genomics, information retrieval, language modeling, and knowledge graphs. We are seeking curious, self-motivated individuals who want to be involved at every stage in the process, from problem formulation to data exploration to model development to analysis and presentation. 

Required Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a PhD program in Bioinformatics, Biostatistics, Genetics, Genomics, Bioengineering, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, or a related 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. 

The base pay range for this internship is USD $6,550 - $12,880 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 $8,480 - $13,920 per month.

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

Microsoft accepts applications and processes offers for these roles on an ongoing basis.

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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.

An ideal candidate would have experience working with biological datasets. Further, they would be sufficiently well-versed in data science and related computational tools to build models to leverage these data to ask and investigate research questions. 

Note that letters of recommendation are not required for this position.