> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt. # Data Science - Forward Deployed Engineer: PhD Internship Opportunities Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/a0c06d52863f9673 Microsoft posts a intern FDE role to build what the customer runs in Redmond, WA, at $81,720–$161,760 base, below the junior FDE median of $135,000 across 26 postings with pay. A PhD-level data science internship with Microsoft Frontier Co, developing and evaluating models and experiments on real-world customer data. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Microsoft](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/microsoft) First seen Oct 20, 2026 · open on Microsoft careers as of Nov 8, 2026 **$81,720–$161,760** *annualized* Redmond, WA Full-time A PhD-level data science internship with Microsoft Frontier Co, developing and evaluating models and experiments on real-world customer data. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Fa0c06d52863f9673&placement=top) - [View posting at Microsoft](https://apply.careers.microsoft.com/careers/job/1970393557040991) Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so. ## At a glance ### Posted base pay $82K–$162K Below the median Midpoint $122K · median $135K This job $82K to $162K. Junior FDE postings, 26 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $117K to $157K, median $135K. [Compare pay across all Microsoft postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/microsoft) ### The work Builds what the customer runs Balance **Mostly building** Project stages 1. Pre-sales (not covered) 2. Proof of concept (not covered) 3. Implementation 4. Operations - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: External customers - **Level**: Junior - **Role**: Individual contributor ### What they ask for Experience - **2+ years** programming in data science, machine learning, statistical computing, or a related technical area *Preferred* - **1+ years** delivering data science or machine learning projects in collaborative, cross-functional teams *Preferred* - **2+ years** developing and applying statistical methods, machine learning algorithms, data structures, or optimization techniques *Preferred* Background - **Software engineering** - **Implementation and data engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting reads as a junior role. What level are you at now? The job is in Redmond, WA. Could you work there? Which of these have you used in production? Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent. [What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths) ## Conditions - **Location**: Redmond, WA - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Pay**: ## More like this [Samsara](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/samsara) ### [Solutions Integration Engineer IV](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/81d21a9b115bb353) Austin, TX · Chicago, IL · +3 more Remote 3mo ago $105,910–$160,200 [Accenture](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/accenture) ### [Snowflake Advanced AI Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/bfaf5e58ec1e0a16) San Francisco, CA · Milwaukee, WI · +39 more 2mo ago $54,400–$205,800 [Meta](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/meta) ### [Business Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/373b94c00da9da13) Austin, TX · Seattle, WA · +2 more 2mo ago $118,000–$176,000 - [Other jobs at Microsoft (9)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/microsoft) ## The job description from 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. Microsoft Frontier Co. is a new line of business and one of the industry's first customer outcome-driven organizations, bringing together industry expertise, strategic partnerships and engineering as part of Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions Its teams will work side-by-side with customers to co-design, deploy, and continuously improve AI systems that deliver measurable, customer-defined outcomes. The organization is built around end-to-end Frontier Transformation, helping customers turn AI into real, lasting business value. For those joining, it's a chance to help build a new growth engine for Microsoft and shape how the industry moves from delivering technology to delivering outcomes. Step into a role where your ideas spark innovation and your impact is felt every day. As part of Frontier Co, you will work with real-world datasets to develop scalable, production-ready solutions and run experiments that inform business strategy and customer outcomes. You will collaborate with global organizations across industries and apply current advances in artificial intelligence and data science to solve problems at scale. As a Data Science PHD Forward Deployed Engineer Intern, you will develop models, evaluate results, and translate evidence into decisions that support measurable business outcomes. You will partner with engineers, product managers, and domain experts throughout the lifecycle from data discovery through deployed solutions. Join the team to help organizations realize greater value from their data. 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. At Microsoft, our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more guides how we partner with customers to deliver trusted, impactful solutions. With a growth‑mindset culture, we innovate responsibly and measure success by shared progress, people, teams, and customers. Join us to do meaningful work that changes the world and helps shape what’s next for everyone. **Participation in this internship does not guarantee future employment. While successful interns may be considered for full-time opportunities, Microsoft is unable to sponsor a work visa for any full-time position associated with this internship due to the nature of the role's job duties. ** ### Responsibilities - Prepare and assess data by using querying, visualization, and reporting techniques to identify key attributes, quality considerations, and project impact. - Develop, train, optimize, and evaluate models using appropriate statistical and machine learning approaches to address business objectives. - Design and analyze controlled experiments, communicate findings to stakeholders, and connect technical metrics with business outcomes. - Partner with engineering teams to operationalize models, supporting performance, scalability, monitoring, maintenance, and integration into production systems. - Collaborate with cross-functional partners to define evaluation metrics and improve artificial intelligence system and product performance. ### Qualifications ### Required/Minimum Qualifications - Currently pursuing a Doctorate in Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics, Economics, Operations Research, Computer Science, or a related field, with at least one academic quarter or semester remaining after completion of the internship. - Must have at least one additional quarter/semester of school remaining following the completion of the internship. - Candidate must be enrolled in a full time bachelor's, masters, MBA, or PhD program in area relevant for the role during the academic term immediately before their internship. ### Preferred Qualifications - 2+ years of programming experience in data science, machine learning, statistical computing, or a related technical area. - 1+ year of experience delivering data science or machine learning projects in collaborative, cross-functional teams. - 2+ years of experience developing and applying statistical methods, machine learning algorithms, data structures, or optimization techniques. - Coursework, research, or applied experience in machine learning, statistical modeling, experimentation, causal inference, data mining, databases, data engineering, or distributed systems. - Experience with SQL and programming languages commonly used in data science, such as Python, R, Java, Scala, C#, or similar. - Familiarity with data pipelines, large-scale data processing frameworks, model evaluation, telemetry systems, visualization or reporting tools, or cloud-based data and machine learning platforms. - Interest in large-scale data science, machine learning systems, experimentation, model optimization, data quality, and translating analytical findings into business and customer impact. #FDE #MicrosoftFrontierCompany #EIP The base pay range for this internship is USD $6,810.00 - $13,480.00 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 $8,920.00 - $14,610.00 per month. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-intern-pay Microsoft accepts applications and processes offers for these roles on an ongoing basis throughout the academic calendar (September - April) This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Microsoft 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.** [View posting at Microsoft](https://apply.careers.microsoft.com/careers/job/1970393557040991) ## About Microsoft Microsoft sells cloud infrastructure, productivity software, and AI tools to enterprises and consumers globally, anchored by Azure, Office 365, and the OpenAI partnership. 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