Research Intern – Azure AI: Speech & Audio At Microsoft

Company: Microsoft
Location: Redmond, WA, Hybrid
Position Type: Internship
Salary: $12,170/yr – $13,240/yr
Industry: Software Development
Employees: 10,001+

About the Job
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 their 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. Their 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. Their 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.

They 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, the candidate will have the opportunity to conduct both fundamental and applied research in collaboration with their researchers and scientists.

This position offers the opportunity to prototype, demonstrate, and publish findings within Microsoft’s privileged environment for Azure AI and Azure Open AI services. Most importantly, the candidate 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, individuals come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize shared goals. Each day they build on their 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, candidates will need to submit a minimum of two reference letters for this position. After submitting the application, a request for letters may be sent to the list of references on behalf of the candidate. Note that reference letters cannot be requested until after submitting the application, and they might not be automatically requested for all candidates. Candidates may wish to alert their letter writers in advance, so they will be ready to submit the 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 on their website.

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 individuals need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, they can read more about requesting accommodations.