Applied Scientist: Microsoft AI – PhD Internship Opportunities – Redmond

Come build community, explore your passions and do your best work at Microsoft with thousands of university interns from every corner of the world. This opportunity will allow you to bring your aspirations, talent, potential – and excitement for the journey ahead.  

As an Applied Scientist PhD intern in Monetization at Microsoft AI, our work is at the forefront of one of the fastest growing areas on the Internet—online advertising and intelligent monetization solutions. Our work powers products like Bing Ads, Copilot, and the broader Microsoft ecosystem, serving billions of ad impressions and generating terabytes of user interaction data every day. The rapid evolution of this space presents incredible opportunities and complex technical challenges that require cutting-edge solutions in machine learning, natural language processing, data mining, and large-scale optimization.

We are a world-class organization of passionate scientists and engineers working at the intersection of AI and monetization. Our mission is to select and deliver optimized, personalized content and ads across Microsoft surfaces to maximize a total utility function that balances revenue, user experience, and advertiser value. Whether it's helping users discover what they need, enabling advertisers to reach their ideal audience, or infusing intelligence into Copilot interactions, we are redefining what’s possible in the future of monetization through AI.

As an intern at Microsoft, you’re stepping into a world of real impact from day one. You’ll collaborate with global teams on meaningful projects, explore cutting-edge technologies like AI, and kick start your career while doing it. With a strong focus on learning and development, this is your opportunity to grow your skills, build community, and shape your future—all while being supported every step of the way.  

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 and 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.   

Please note this application is only for internships based in our Redmond, Washington office. For internships in other offices in the United States, please see our Careers site.

Required Qualifications:

• Currently pursuing a Doctorate Degree in Statistics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or related field
• Must have at least one additional quarter/semester of school remaining following the completion of the internship
• Candidate must be enrolled in a full time bachelor's, masters, MBA, or PhD program in area relevant for the role during the academic term immediately before their internship.

The base pay range for this internship is USD $6710.00 - $13270.00 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 $8760.00 - $14360.00 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 (August - April).

• Analyze and improve performance of advanced algorithms on large-scale datasets and cutting-edge research in machine intelligence and machine learning applications.
• Think through the product scenarios and goals, identify key challenges, then fit the scenario asks into Machine Learning (ML) tasks, design experimental process for iteration and optimization.
• Implement prototypes of scalable systems in AI applications.
• Gain an understanding of a broad area of research and applicable research techniques, as well as a basic knowledge of industry trends and share your knowledge with immediate team members.
• Prepare data to be used for analysis by reviewing criteria that reflect quality and technical constraints. Reviews data and suggests data to be included and excluded and be able to describe actions taken to address data quality problems.
• Assist with the development of usable datasets for modeling purposes and support the scaling of feature ideation and data preparation.
• Help take cleaned data and adapt for machine learning purposes, under the direction of a senior team member