Research Intern - Security, Privacy and AI: Microsoft (Microsoft Research)

Role Overview
This is a PhD-level research position within Microsoft Research (MSR), one of the most prestigious computer science research organizations in the world.

Unlike a standard software engineering internship, this role is highly academic and forward-looking. You will focus specifically on Agentic AI Security for Windows. As Microsoft integrates Copilot deeper into the OS, they need rigorous security proofs to ensure these AI agents (which have permission to act on a user's behalf) cannot be tricked into compromising the system.

Key Responsibilities
Threat Modeling Agents: Analyze LLM-enabled agentic designs (specifically for Windows OS) to identify vulnerabilities.

Formal Verification: Develop formal security frameworks and mathematical proofs to reason about how these AI systems behave under attack.

Prototype & Publish: Produce a concrete deliverable—such as a prototype mitigation, a formal proof framework, or a technical report/paper.

Qualifications
Education: Must be currently enrolled in a PhD program (CS, EE, Math).

Core Domain: Strong background in Identity Management, Privacy, or Applied Cryptography.

Specific Preferences:

Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs): Experience with scalable ZKPs is explicitly listed as a strong plus.

Agentic Design: Understanding how autonomous AI agents function and the privacy risks involved in granting them authorization.

Workforce Diversity at Microsoft
Microsoft provides detailed demographic data. As of the 2024 Global Diversity & Inclusion Report, the representation in Core Technical Roles in the US is as follows:

US Tech Workforce by Race/Ethnicity (2024):

Asian: 35.8%

White: 47.9%

Hispanic/Latinx: 7.5%

Black/African American: 5.3%

Multiracial: 2.8%

Gender Representation (Global Tech Roles):

Men: 73.4%

Women: 26.6%

Internship Demographics: Microsoft's internship programs are historically more diverse than their full-time senior staff, often serving as their primary pipeline for increasing representation. Specific intern stats are not publicly isolated, but university recruiting aims for parity with graduation rates of the relevant degree fields.

Application Nuance: Reference Letters
Unlike the other industry roles you viewed, this position requires academic reference letters.

Requirement: Minimum of two reference letters.

Timing: The system requests these after you submit.

Strategy: You must notify your PhD advisor and one other professor before applying to ensure they are ready to upload immediately, as delays here often cause applications to be "timed out" in the review queue.

Strategic Analysis
This role sits at the intersection of Cryptography (ZKPs) and GenAI.

The Problem: If an AI Agent knows your credit card number to buy you a pizza, how do you prove to the pizza vendor that you have funds without the AI actually revealing the raw credit card data to the cloud?

The Solution: Zero-Knowledge Proofs.