Software Engineer - InternAt — Microsoft

Overview

Come build community, explore your passions and do your best work at Microsoft with thousands of University interns from every corner of the world. This opportunity will allow you to bring your aspirations, talent, potential—and excitement for the journey ahead.

As a Software Engineering Intern, you will work with teammates to solve problems and build innovative software solutions. You will apply your passion for customers and product quality as you provide technical guidance to Technical Program Managers and Product Managers. You will learn and adopt relevant new technologies, tools, methods, and processes to leverage in your solutions. This opportunity will enable you to advance your career by designing, developing, and testing next-generation software that will empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.

At Microsoft, Interns work on real-world projects in collaboration with teams across the world, while having fun along the way. You’ll be empowered to build community, explore your passions and achieve your goals. This is your chance to bring your solutions and ideas to life while working on cutting-edge technology.

Responsibilities

• Applies engineering principles to solve complex problems through sound and creative engineering.
• Works with appropriate stakeholders to determine user requirements for a feature.
• Quickly learns new engineering methods and incorporates them into work processes.
• Seeks feedback and applies internal or industry best practices to improve technical solutions.
• Demonstrates skill in time management and completing software projects in a cooperative team environment.
• Reviews current developments and proactively seeks new knowledge that will improve the availability, reliability, efficiency, observability, and performance of products while also driving consistency in monitoring and operations at scale. 

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Currently pursuing Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• Must have at least one (1) semester/term remaining following the completion of the internship. 
• One (1) year of programming experience in an object-oriented language.\u202f 

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to demonstrate an understanding of computer science fundamentals, including data structures and algorithms. 

Tasks:

The student will perform professional software engineering responsibilities that support real product development and allow them to demonstrate the required learning outcomes. Core duties include:

Designing and implementing features within the team’s codebase, including writing production-quality code, unit tests, and integration tests.
Participating in code reviews, both as an author and a reviewer, to understand engineering best practices, receive feedback, and improve code quality.
Debugging and resolving issues by analyzing logs, telemetry, and test results to identify root causes and validate fixes.
Contributing to technical documentation, such as design notes, implementation guides, or updates to existing team documentation.
Collaborating with engineers during sprint planning, stand\u2011ups, backlog refinement, and design discussions to understand the broader development workflow.
Prototyping or evaluating technical approaches under guidance from mentors, comparing tradeoffs, and making recommendations.
Working with development tools and systems, including build pipelines, version control (Git), continuous integration systems, and debugging utilities.
Engaging in cross\u2011team or cross\u2011discipline work, such as integrating APIs, coordinating with design or PM, or validating changes with quality engineering partners.

These responsibilities ensure the student is engaged in meaningful, complex engineering work and is able to demonstrate substantial progress toward their learning outcomes.

Training:

During this internship, the student will receive structured training designed to support their learning goals and success in a professional engineering environment. Training will include:

1. General Employer Orientation (mandatory): Introduction to Microsoft’s engineering culture, tools, security practices, and organizational structure.
2. Weekly One\u2011on\u2011One Mentor Meetings: A dedicated mentor will meet with the student weekly to provide coaching, answer questions, review progress, and guide technical and professional development.
3. Job Shadowing Opportunities: The student will observe engineers during code reviews, design discussions, sprint planning, incident triage, and cross\u2011team collaboration to gain exposure to real\u2011world workflows.
4. Hands\u2011On Technical Training: Direct instruction in the team’s codebase, development environment, build systems, debugging tools, and contribution workflow (including Git, pull requests, and testing infrastructure).
5. Task Context and Documentation Review: The student will receive background materials, design documents, sample implementations, and contextual explanations for all assigned tasks to support understanding and independence.
6. Project\u2011Specific Skills Development: Training in team\u2011specific technologies (e.g., Outlook architecture, shared frameworks, telemetry systems, or platform-specific tools) relevant to the student’s assigned project.
7. Feedback Loops: Regular code reviews, written feedback, and ongoing technical guidance from engineers across the team to reinforce good engineering practices and continuous learning.

This combination of orientation, mentorship, structured learning, and hands\u2011on training ensures the student can successfully meet the internship learning outcomes and grow as an engineer.

Learning outcome:

By the end of the academic internship, the student will be able to…

1. Apply software engineering principles to design, implement, and test features in a real-world production codebase.
2. Use modern development tools and workflows (such as version control, code review processes, build systems, and debugging tools) to contribute effectively to a collaborative engineering team.
3. Analyze and solve technical problems independently, using data, logs, and experimentation to identify root causes and propose solutions.
4. Communicate technical decisions clearly, both verbally and in writing, to teammates, mentors, and cross\u2011functional partners.
5. Incorporate feedback and iterate on implementations, demonstrating growth in engineering judgment, code quality, and professional practices.