Research Intern - Computational Social Science

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 Microsoft Research Computational Social Science (CSS) group is widely recognized as a leading center of computational social science research, drawing on computational techniques to answer questions in the social sciences. Recently, our group has been focused on designing and understanding the impact of AI-based tools at both the individual and societal levels.  At the individual level we conduct research on AI-augmented human cognition and decision-making, including research on how intelligent systems can enhance education. At the societal level, our work explores the economics of agentic markets, where AI agents represent both consumers and businesses. Additional areas of interest are: innovating ways to make data, models, and algorithms easier for people to understand; improving polling and forecasting; advancing crowdsourcing methods; understanding the market (and impact) for news and advertising.

Our approach is motivated by two longstanding difficulties for traditional social science: first, that simply gathering observational data on human activity is extremely difficult at scale and over time; and second, that running experiments to manipulate the conditions under which these measurements are made (e.g., randomly assigning large sets of interacting people to treatment and control groups) is even more challenging and often impossible. 

In the first category, we exploit digital data that is generated by existing platforms (e.g., email, web browsers, search, social media) to generate novel insights into individual and collective human behavior. In the second category, we design novel experiments that allow for larger scale, longer time horizons, and greater complexity and realism than is possible in physical labs. We analyze crowdsourced participants in lab studies, AI participants in simulation studies, and user behavior infield experiments. 

Other internships at MSR New England and MSR NYC can be found on the labs’ listing of opportunities or in the job search tool. Microsoft Research New England and Microsoft Research New York City comprise approximately fifty full-time researchers and postdocs working in computational social science, economics and computation, FATE, machine learning and AI, computational biology, and sociotechnical systems. The labs are highly collaborative and interdisciplinary and are actively engaged with the local academic and tech communities. 

Please explicitly list in your cover letter: 

1. Your data analytic toolset (e.g., R, Python, etc.) 
2. Your web development toolset (e.g., Javascript, React.js, D3.js, etc.) 
3. Your experience developing, evaluating, and/or using generative AI tools 
4. A link to any online code repositories (e.g., Github, OSF, etc.) 
5. A link to your research website/publications 

You can upload documents by going to your profile on the career site and clicking on the Resume Manager tab in the top right of the page, and from there selecting Other Documents.

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For full consideration, please submit your application by January 9, 2026.

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, Res