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 Cognitive Services team in the Azure AI organization is on a mission to advance the state of the art in AI and deliver on our company’s vision for how intelligent cloud and intelligent edge will shape the next phase of innovation. The team includes top scientists and researchers from across Microsoft who are creating a center of excellence in speech, computer vision, and natural language.

Speech and audio AI technology is one of the key drivers for advancing natural user interfaces with natural spoken language. Our team is on a mission to develop the core speech technologies that empower millions of users to achieve more, such as the speech recognition platform that powers Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams live captioning. Our team brings together talent in the areas of signal processing, speech recognition, speech translation, speaker recognition, and speech and audio generation to develop and deliver robust, natural and scalable speech experience across a rich set of scenarios and languages.

We are seeking Research Interns to contribute to pioneering research in speech and audio. This includes areas such as end-to-end speech recognition and translation, advanced speaker recognition and diarization, as well as speech and audio generative models. As a research intern, you will have the opportunity to conduct both fundamental and applied research in collaboration with our researchers and scientists.

This position offers the opportunity to prototype, demonstrate, and publish your findings within Microsoft’s privileged environment for Azure AI and Azure Open AI services. Most importantly, you will have the chance to push the boundaries of current technologies, making a significant impact on millions of users.

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.

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.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a PhD program in speech recognition, speech translation, separation, and enhancement, speaker recognition and diarization, speech and audio generation, audio processing, deep learning, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) or a related field.

• At least one year of research experience in speech recognition, speech translation, separation, and enhancement, speaker recognition, speaker diarization, speech and audio generation, audio processing, deep learning, machine learning, AI 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 above, you’ll need to submit a minimum of two reference letters for this position. 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

• Experience with open-source tools such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, etc.

• Publication(s) in top-tier conferences or journals in related fields (e.g., ICASSP, Interspeech, ASRU, SLT, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing, Speech Communication, Computer Speech and Language, etc.).

• Effective communication and writing skills.

The base pay range for this internship is USD $6,290 - $12,170 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 $8,060 - $13,240 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 (https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-intern-pay%C2%A0)

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

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, 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 and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .