A 2022 Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) graduate in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Mukul Singh has moved from a research intern to Director of Science at Microsoft Research in just four years.Based in Redmond, Washington, Singh currently leads science and technical strategy for Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform powering Microsoft 365. According to his LinkedIn profile, his work focuses on agentic AI, foundation models, model routing and post-training. He also serves as a technical advisor to the company’s executive leadership on long-term AI strategy.
From internship to leadership
Singh joined Microsoft Research as a research intern in January 2022 while completing his engineering degree at IIT Delhi. After graduating later that year, he was appointed Associate Researcher in the PROSE team, where he worked on improving developer experiences through AI.He was promoted to Researcher in June 2024 and became Senior Researcher in July 2025. In March 2026, he took over as Director of Science, leading AI research and strategy for Microsoft’s productivity ecosystem.His work contributes to products including GitHub Copilot, Excel Copilot, Visual Studio and Power Query, technologies that reach more than a billion users every month.
Research foundation at IIT Delhi
Before joining Microsoft full time, Singh worked as a Research Assistant at CART at IIT Delhi between December 2020 and December 2021. He also completed a Data Science internship at American Express in Gurugram during the summer of 2021.His academic and research experience at IIT Delhi, followed by successive research roles at Microsoft, mirrors a career built through continuous work in artificial intelligence and software development.At a time when discussions around layoffs and slower hiring continue across the technology sector, Singh’s career progression highlights that opportunities remain for professionals who build specialised skills, pursue research experience and continue learning in fast-evolving fields such as AI.
