{"id":4197170,"url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-research-intern-gray-systems-lab-gsl-3","title":"Research Intern - Gray Systems Lab (GSL)","company":{"id":18,"name":"Microsoft","domain":"microsoft.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/microsoft","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Eightfold","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":84,"open_postings":521,"ghost_share":0.01,"stale_share":0.568,"repost_share":0.05,"time_to_fill_p50_days":30,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"Early Careers","role_family":"Early Careers","seniority":"intern","employment_type":"internship","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Madrid, Spain"],"countries":["ES"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":4000,"max":null,"currency":"EUR","period":"month","gross":null,"usd_annual":53064},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agentic Workflows","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"Apache Iceberg","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"MySQL","optional":false},{"name":"Post-training","optional":false},{"name":"Reinforcement Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Spark","optional":false},{"name":"SQL","optional":false},{"name":"C#","optional":true},{"name":"C++","optional":true},{"name":"CUDA","optional":true},{"name":"Java","optional":true},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true},{"name":"Rust","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-28T19:11:39Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-12","last_verified_at":"2026-11-12T20:44:24Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":15,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":15},"description":"OverviewResearch 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. 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.\nGray Systems Lab (GSL) is an applied research lab within Azure Data. We conduct research and development in databases, big data, and cloud systems, working closely with product teams to design innovative solutions to real-world problems. Our team is friendly and inclusive. We focus on a variety of exciting areas, including: machine learning for systems, reinforcement learning, fine-tuning and post-training techniques, agentic workflows and systems, resource management, query optimization and execution. We also work on workload optimization, graph analytics, data storage formats and governance, modern and emerging hardware (e.g., GPUs, NVM, and FPGAs), program analysis, data provenance, and ontologies. Our work spans both Microsoft internal and open-source systems, including Fabric, Spark, SQL Server, MySQL, Apache Iceberg, and others. We provide opportunities to pursue ideas arising from internal collaborations and external partnerships with universities, while remaining active scholars in the research community.\nWe are looking for highly motivated graduate students interested in cutting-edge research conducted in close collaboration with advanced industry product groups. Past internships have resulted in both production-system impact and publications at top conferences. Applicants should demonstrate a track record in one or more areas of systems, databases, or data science, as well as an aptitude for hands-on system building and rigorous experimental design, including running and analyzing experiments at scale.\nContract Length: 12 weeks \nLocation: Barcelona Spain \nStart Date: June 2027 \nResponsibilities\nTurn research questions and theory into practical work during a 12-week research internship.\nWork with a dedicated mentor throughout the internship.\nCollaborate with other doctoral interns and leading researchers on research and development projects.\nPresent your research findings to mentors, peers and the wider research community.\nTake part in the research community and build a professional network.\nContribute to research in your area of study while growing your own career.\nQualifications\nRequired Qualification\nCurrently pursuing a PhD degree in computer science, statistics, mathematics, or related technical field.\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience with one or more general purpose programming languages, such as Python, Java, C#, C++, Rust.\nExperience with one of the following: PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, Spark, Apache Iceberg, CUDA, or other database or big data systems.\nExperience contributing to research communities and/or efforts, including publishing papers (being listed as author) at academic conferences.\nShould be able to take initiative but also follow a research/productization plan and work well as part of a team.\nExcellent critical thinking and communication skills.\nThe base pay for this internship is € 4,000.00 per month. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.\nFind additional benefits and pay information here:\nhttps://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/interns-corporate-pay.html\nThis position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.\nMicrosoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4384,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Spain","iso":"ES","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Cloud Platforms (IaaS & PaaS)","Office & Productivity Software","Gaming Consoles","Developer Tools"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-12T20:44:24Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":77,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":0.9,"age_days":15,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:1","win:mid","comp:junior,brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-12T22:31:29Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":53064,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-research-intern-gray-systems-lab-gsl-3","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/microsoft-research-intern-gray-systems-lab-gsl-3.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-12T22:31:29Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":47637,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-13T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":18},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=18"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-research-intern-gray-systems-lab-gsl-3"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-research-intern-gray-systems-lab-gsl-3"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-research-intern-gray-systems-lab-gsl-3"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/microsoft-research-intern-gray-systems-lab-gsl-3\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fmicrosoft-research-intern-gray-systems-lab-gsl-3"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4197170}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"microsoft.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4197170},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. Docs: https://alion.io/developers"}}