Machine Learning Intern

Epicgames; Greater London; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

Epic Games is offering a paid Research Internship in machine learning within Epic Research. Open to PhD students or recent graduates (within 12 months), you’ll work on state-of-the-art ML across the Epic ecosystem, including Unreal Engine and popular games like Fortnite and Rocket League.

Locations include select UK, US or Canada regions with flexible start dates for 2026/2027, full- or part-time hours (40/20 per week). Publishing research is common and encouraged.

Qualifications

• Ongoing or recently completed PhD in CS/AI or related field.
• Record of publications in top venues.
• Experience implementing deep learning for CV/NLP/Speech.
• Hands-on knowledge of state-of-the-art ML methods (Transformers, diffusion, RL).
• Experience with post-training foundation models (SFT, RLHF).
• Excellent AI coding and experimental engineering skills.
• Desirable: game development exposure in C++/C#.

Responsibilities

• Work on AI-backed interactive characters and memory systems.
• Develop game agents: vision-language-action and state agents.
• Explore 3D human/object tracking and embodied behavior.
• Research diffusion models and reinforcement learning for games.
• Work on speech systems and conversational agents.
• Contribute to world building, game logic generation and content localization.
• Assist in Epic Developer tools and UE/UEFN AI features.
• Publish research at top conferences.

Skills

PhD in CS/AI

Publications

Deep learning

Transformers

Diffusion models

Reinforcement learning

C++/C#

Education

PhD in Computer Science or related field

Tools

PyTorch

Machine learning frameworks

Job description

WHAT MAKES US EPIC?

At the core of Epic's success are talented, passionate people. Epic prides itself on creating a collaborative, welcoming, and creative environment. Whether it's building award-winning games or crafting engine technology that enables others to make visually stunning interactive experiences, we're always innovating.

Being Epic means being a part of a team that continually strives to do right by our community and users. We're constantly innovating to raise the bar of engine and game development.

ENGINEERING - EPIC RESEARCH

What We Do

Epic Research conducts state-of-the‑

MACHINE LEARNING RESEARCH INTERNSHIP AT EPIC GAMES

What You'll Do

Epic Games is looking for current PhD students and recent PhD graduates (within 12 months of graduation) for paid research internships, working on state-of-the‑art machine learning across our ecosystem. Epic makes Unreal Engine, which powers creative work across many industries, alongside some of the world's most popular games, including Fortnite and Rocket League. Through these products, ML research at Epic reaches millions of creators and players every day. AI is reshaping the games industry, and Epic Research - led by Lucia Specia and Michael Black - is at the center of that shift. We're looking for talented interns who want to be part of it.

In this role, you will

• AI-backed interactive characters: LLMs for conversational characters, memory systems, automated evals, animation, etc.
• Game agents: vision-language-action, game-state agents, etc.
• 3D human and object tracking
• Reinforcement learning for embodied behavior
• Speech systems and conversational agents
• World building and game logic generation : video models, 2D->3D scene building, etc.
• AI-assisted game development , e.g. the next generation of Epic Developer Assistant for UE and UEFN
• Embodied and physical intelligence including human-object interaction
• Multi-modal diffusion models
• Player safety : AI-alignment, content moderation, etc.
• Improved user experience : personalised game recommendation, game representation, spam detection, etc.
• Content localization : (multimodal) translation, quality assurance, etc.
• Model distillation for realtime performance

What we're looking for

• An ongoing or recently completed (within the last 12 months) PhD in Computer Science, Mathematics, AI or a related field
• A record of publication in top conferences/journals
• Experience implementing deep learning algorithms for problems in computer vision, natural language processing, or speech/audio processing
• Hands-on knowledge of state-of-the-art ML methods, such as Transformers, diffusion models, and reinforcement learning
• Experience with post-training foundation models, including SFT, preference training, and reinforcement learning
• Excellent AI coding and experimental engineering skills
• Desirable: game development experience in either C++ or C#

Internship Details

• Duration: 5-12 months initially (depending on your location), with flexible start-dates throughout 2026/2027
• Hours: full-time (40 hours/week) or part-time (20 hours/week)
• Location: Select regions within the UK, US or Canada
• Employment Authorization : You must hold an existing right to work in the UK, US or Canada for the full duration of the internship - Visa sponsorship or support is unavailable for this role
• Publishing : Research by Epic interns is regularly published in top-tier conferences

This internship has a flexible start date in 2026/2027. Recruitment will be ongoing until teams find an ideal match. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the posting location for the duration of the internship. For more information about Epic's Early Career Program, visit epicgames.com/earlycareers . This is going to be Epic!

ABOUT US

Epic Games is a leading interactive entertainment company. For over 30 years we've been making award-winning games and engine technology that empowers others to make visually stunning games and 3D content that bring environments to life like never before. Epic's award-winning Unreal Engine technology not only provides game developers the ability to build high-fidelity, interactive experiences for PC, console, mobile, and VR, it is also a tool being embraced by content creators across a variety of industries such as media and entertainment, automotive, and architectural design. As we continue to build our Engine technology and develop remarkable gam