Careers in research
Join a brilliant team of researchers working to solve technology’s most exciting challenges.
New roles at Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research provides a dynamic environment for research careers with a network of world-class research labs led by globally-recognized research scientists and engineers. Our researchers and engineers 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.
About our roles
Research internships
Research interns put inquiry and theory into practice. Alongside fellow doctoral candidates and some of the world’s best researchers, interns learn, collaborate, and network for life. Interns not only advance their careers but also contribute to exciting research and development strides. During the 12-week internship, students are paired with mentors and expected to collaborate with other interns and researchers, present findings, and contribute to the vibrant life of the community. Internships are available virtually, at our locations around the world, and in all areas of research. During the application process, we’ll work with you to find the opportunity that best aligns with your interests. Internships are offered year-round, though they typically begin in the summer. All internships are paid. We’ll also help with visa applications where needed.
Postdoctoral researcher positions
Microsoft Research provides a vibrant research environment, with an open publications policy and close links to top academic institutions across the world. Postdoctoral researcher positions provide an opportunity to develop your research career and to interact with some of the top minds in the research community, with the potential to have your research realized in products and services that will be used worldwide. Postdoc researchers are expected to demonstrate both independence in defining their own research strategy within a domain as well as an ability to drive forward an effective program of research. Postdoc researchers receive a competitive salary and benefits package and are eligible for relocation expenses. Our Postdoc positions are typically for a one-year or two-year fixed-term appointment.
Full-time academic research positions
Microsoft research teams are built with the world’s best researchers, engineers, program managers and designers who work together to seek innovative solutions to the world’s toughest challenges and improve the lives of people everywhere. We seek research candidates with PhDs and a proven track record of published papers and participation on program committees and editorial boards for our academic research positions. Microsoft Research has lab locations around the world and provides a collaborative, supportive and open academic environment.
Working at Microsoft Research
Our culture, your future
Microsoft Research offers an exhilarating and supportive environment for both theoretical and empirical cutting-edge multidisciplinary research, with access to an extraordinary diversity of big and small data sources, an open publications policy, and close links to top academic institutions around the world.
We need your passion for science and your commitment to working on world-class research projects.
To help the researchers with their projects and unleash their full potential, we provide an open interdisciplinary research atmosphere with sufficient computational resources. Worldwide collaborations within Microsoft and with other institutes are encouraged and supported.
As a researcher, you have the opportunity to create and pursue a research agenda with our group’s diverse array of researchers and practitioners, as well as contribute to ongoing research projects.
Our researcher community
Here are just a few of the people doing research at Microsoft in a vast array of disciplines and roles. Learn more about the people who make it all possible.
We are committed to building an inclusive, diverse, and pluralistic research environment and strongly encourage applications from women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, veterans, as well as students with non-traditional backgrounds. We work collectively to make Microsoft Research a welcoming and productive space for all researchers.
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.
Melissa Boone
Principal Xbox Research Manager
Victor Dibia
Principal Research Software Engineer
Asta Roseway
Principal Research Designer / Fusionist
Deepthi Sudharsan
Research Fellow
Desney Tan
Corporate Vice President and Managing Director, Microsoft Research Redmond
Jaime Teevan
Chief Scientist & Technical Fellow
Research labs
Africa Lab
Microsoft Research Africa, Nairobi’s mission to understand, build, and deploy innovative cloud and AI technology addresses core opportunities in Africa. We’re contributing to solving local challenges at scale, and creating a more productive future of work globally.
AI for Science
“Over the coming decade, deep learning looks set to have a transformational impact on the natural sciences. The consequences are potentially far-reaching and could dramatically improve our ability to model and predict natural phenomena over widely varying scales of space and time. Our AI4Science team encompasses world experts in machine learning, quantum physics, computational chemistry, molecular biology, fluid dynamics, software engineering, and other disciplines, who are working together to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in this field.“
Professor Chris Bishop, Technical Fellow and Director, Microsoft Research AI4Science
AI Frontiers
At AI Frontiers, our mission is to revolutionize our understanding of intelligence by pushing the boundaries of AI. We strive to achieve this by continuously exploring and innovating current architectures and learning signals, unlocking new possibilities and shaping the future of AI.
Asia Lab
Microsoft Research Asia (MSR Asia), based in Beijing and Shanghai, is Microsoft’s largest research institute outside the United States. Founded in 1998, MSR Asia has grown into a world-class research lab, with more than 300 scientists and engineers and conducts research in: natural user interface, artificial intelligence, cloud and edge computing, big data and knowledge mining, computer science fundamentals, intelligent multimedia, and computational science.
Cambridge Lab
“At Microsoft Research in Cambridge, our mission is to transform the world through deep research. We do this by working together in an interdisciplinary way, in close collaboration with the broader Microsoft business, to ensure that we are designing robust and trusted technologies to empower millions of people worldwide. To truly understand how we can empower others, we need to put the people at the centre of what we do. I am proud to be part of a team who is so enthusiastically committed to exploring and pushing the boundaries for the benefit of our society.”
Abigail Sellen, Distinguished Scientist and Lab Director, Microsoft Research Cambridge
Health Futures
Microsoft Health Futures is focused on empowering every person on the planet to live a healthier future. To this end, we are responsible for research, incubations, and moonshots that drive cross-company strategy, partnerships, and real-world impact across healthcare and the life sciences.
We are a global, inclusive, and diverse crew of researchers, scientists, engineers, biotechnologists, designers, social scientists, strategists, healthcare experts, and medical professionals.
India Lab
Microsoft Research India brings together scientists, researchers, and engineers with backgrounds in algorithms, machine learning and AI, systems and socio-technical systems that empower marginalized populations. The lab also includes a Center for Societal impact through Cloud and Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) that focuses on creating, nurturing and deploying technologies that will have large scale impact on society through deep collaborations with academic groups, startups, NGOs and other organizations that share our passion for positively impacting society through technology.
Montréal Lab
The Microsoft Research Montréal lab strives to build machines that learn from and understand the world by bringing together researchers in the machine learning, reinforcement learning, and FATE (fairness accountability, transparency and ethics in AI) research areas.
With a focus on advancing the state-of-the-art in deep learning, the lab’s researchers accelerate research breakthroughs across both existing and new models to advance state-of-the-art deep learning that has a positive impact on society.
New England Lab
Microsoft Research New England (MSR-NE) was founded in July 2008 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The New England lab builds on Microsoft’s commitment to collaborate with the broader research community and pursues new, interdisciplinary areas of research that bring together core computer scientists and social scientists to understand, model, and enable computing and online experiences of the future.
New York City Lab
Researchers at this lab work together with others in Microsoft Research and in academia to advance the state of the art in social science, both computational and behavioral, computational economics and prediction markets, machine learning, as well as information retrieval. Along with helping to answer big data questions, their research will help us to understand economic and political predictions for understanding online human behavior. This research along with their study of social sciences will help to inform the technology of the future.
Redmond Lab
“Microsoft Research is a multidisciplinary global organization working to create scientific knowledge and deliver innovation that leads to positive human impact at scale. To envision and build the future, we work with our partners to do the unnatural and achieve the impossible (or at least improbable), which is a lot of fun. Come join us, and let’s do this…”
Desney Tan, Vice President and Managing Director, Microsoft Research Redmond