PhD Intern, AI Applied Scientist (2027)

Role

Figma's AI Research team seeks PhD interns to develop AI solutions for design and creative products through fundamental and applied research. The team optimizes agentic systems for design quality and user experience, builds design evaluators, and post-trains models.

The internship takes place in Winter 2027 or Summer 2027 at Figma's San Francisco or New York hub offices.

Responsibilities

• Drive fundamental and applied research in generative AI for Figma product use cases.
• Formulate and implement modeling approaches to improve existing AI models and enable new AI-powered product features.
• Explore current technology's boundaries and experiment with novel ideas.
• Depending on the project, potentially publish research at leading AI/ML conferences.

Qualifications

• Be a fourth- or fifth-year PhD student in AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, Human Computer Interaction, or a related field.
• Demonstrate AI expertise through publications on recent advances, such as large language models or agentic systems.
• Have a track record of applying machine learning techniques in academic or industry projects.
• Have experience with Python and machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Have experience solving sophisticated problems and comparing alternative solutions, trade-offs, and diverse perspectives to determine a path forward.

Preferred Qualifications

• Related industry experience from a prior internship or full-time role.
• Experience communicating solutions effectively to different audiences.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools, such as GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or Claude, to write, debug, and optimize code.

Compensation and Benefits

• Hourly base pay: $74 USD.
• Housing stipend and travel reimbursement for interns.
• Compensation and benefits are subject to change.

Application and Interview Requirements

• Candidates are encouraged to apply even if their experience does not align perfectly with every qualification.
• Cameras must remain on during video interviews.
• Hired candidates must attend in-person onboarding.
• Candidates may submit up to five applications in any rolling 30-day period.
• Candidates may not reapply to the same role while an application is active or within 90 days of a rejection. Reapplication is permitted after the applicable period.
• Application data is processed under Figma's Candidate Privacy Notice.
• Reasonable accommodations are available for applications, interviews, and employment. Contact accommodations-ext@figma.com. Examples include accessible interview locations, closed captioning, screen-reader-compatible written communication, and changes to interview format.