An Indian Institute of Technology Delhi graduate has made a remarkable leap in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, rising from a research intern to Director of Science at Microsoft Research in just four years.

Mukul Singh, who completed his BTech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi in 2022, now leads science and technical strategy for the AI platform powering Microsoft 365 at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. According to his LinkedIn profile, his work focuses on agentic AI, foundation models, model routing and post-training, while also advising Microsoft's executive leadership on long-term AI strategy.

Singh's journey at Microsoft began in January 2022, when he joined Microsoft Research as a research intern during the final year of his engineering degree. After graduating later that year, he was appointed as an Associate Researcher in the PROSE team, where he worked on AI-driven technologies designed to improve developer productivity and software development workflows.

His rapid career progression continued with promotions to Researcher in June 2024, Senior Researcher in July 2025, and finally Director of Science in March 2026. In his current role, Singh oversees AI research and technical strategy for Microsoft's productivity ecosystem, contributing to widely used products such as GitHub Copilot, Excel Copilot, Visual Studio and Power Query, which collectively serve more than a billion users worldwide.

Before joining Microsoft full-time, Singh built a strong research foundation at IIT Delhi. Between December 2020 and December 2021, he worked as a Research Assistant at the institute's CART laboratory. He also completed a Data Science internship at American Express in Gurugram during the summer of 2021, gaining early industry exposure in data science and machine learning.

At a time when the global technology sector continues to navigate layoffs and cautious hiring, Singh's career reflects the growing demand for professionals with specialised expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning and software research. His progression from intern to leadership within four years highlights how sustained research, technical excellence and continuous learning can open opportunities in the rapidly evolving AI industry.