Research Intern - Data Systems

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.

Data systems research at MSR focuses on all aspects of large-scale cloud data systems including infrastructure for managing cloud services, caching, storage, transactional and analytic databases, distributed databases, and vector databases. Our goals include reducing the total cost of ownership of systems using techniques such as auto-tuning, query optimization and processing, approximate query processing, and exploiting modern hardware to push the envelope of performance, reliability, and cost.

The group also focuses on data exploration, novel ways to accelerate discovering insights from data. We are interested in a variety of topics in this area, including techniques to enable self-service data cleaning and transformation at scale, search over structured data, meta-data management, use of machine learning for database systems, and information extraction.

During this Research Internship, you will have the opportunity to work with top researchers and engineers at MSR to develop innovative solutions to challenging research problems in the above technical areas.

Technology arising from our data systems research has been incorporated into Microsoft’s data and computing platforms such as SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, the Microsoft AI Platform, Azure Stream Analytics, Bing, and PowerBI. Many of our systems artifacts have been open-sourced and have had broad impact in industry and academia. Our research has also had a significant impact on the academic community with influential publications at top conferences such as SIGMOD, VLDB, ICDE, KDD, and WWW, including multiple best paper awards and test-of-time awards.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Required Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a PhD 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

Depending on the specific project:

• Familiarity with the internals of relational database systems, distributed cache and key-value stores, vector databases, storage engines, model training and inference, and/or big data analytics systems may be helpful.
• Familiarity with query processing and optimization, concurrency, transactions, resource management, scheduling, and ability to apply machine learning techniques may also be desirable.
• For data exploration projects, some familiarity with data cleaning, data transformation, applications of machine learning, data structure and algorithms may be desirable.

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.

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.