2026 PhD Software Engineer Intern (Engineering Security, United States

Austin Community College; United States; On-site; USD 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

An educational institution seeks PhD candidates for a winter 2026 internship on its Engineering Security team. Interns will contribute to the development of AI agents focused on security and privacy. Responsibilities include researching AI-driven solutions, designing automated workflows, and collaborating within engineering teams. Ideal candidates are PhD students in relevant fields with strong Python skills and an understanding of AI frameworks. This opportunity is essential for those interested in applying their research in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Current PhD student with at least one semester/quarter remaining after the internship.
• Strong grasp of AI-driven security systems and tools.
• Ability to conduct independent research.
• Experience in applying LLMs in security contexts.

Responsibilities

• Research and prototype AI-driven security agents.
• Design automated patching and verification workflows.
• Investigate LLM-based agents' capabilities in security.
• Collaborate with engineers for integration into systems.
• Document findings for technical reports and publications.

Skills

Understanding of LLM ecosystem

Proficiency in Python

Experience with ML frameworks

Research capabilities

Strong problem-solving skills

Education

Current PhD student in Computer Science or related field

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

We’re looking for PhD candidates to intern on the Engineering Security team during winter 2026 (12 weeks). You will be embedded in our engineering team and work closely with other specialists, software developers, and product managers. As a PhD intern, you will contribute to research and development of AI agents for security and privacy. You’ll explore methods to build, evaluate, and scale agents that can reason about complex systems, detect vulnerabilities, propose and apply patches, and verify security outcomes.

About the Team

Join Uber's Engineering Security (EngSec) organization at our growing center of excellence for AI/ML initiatives. Our mission is transforming security and privacy through AI innovation, focusing on three critical areas: using AI to strengthen security capabilities, building secure-by-design AI systems, and protecting against emerging AI-based threats. We're developing the next generation of security and privacy platforms that leverage and defend against cutting-edge AI to protect Uber's ecosystem.

What You'll Do

• Research and prototype AI-driven agents that can discover, remediate, and verify security vulnerabilities
• Design and evaluate automated patching and verification workflows using LLMs and agent-based architectures
• Investigate reasoning, planning, and tool-use capabilities of LLM-based agents in security contexts
• Collaborate with researchers and engineers to integrate solutions into production systems
• Document findings and contribute to technical reports, publications, or open-source tools

Basic Qualifications

• Current PhD student in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Security, or related field
• Candidates must have at least one semester/quarter of their education left following the internship
• Strong understanding of the LLM ecosystem and agentic AI frameworks (e.g., tool use, multi-step reasoning, orchestration)
• Proficiency in Python and experience with ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow)
• Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research

Preferred Qualifications

• Publications in top ML/AI or security venues (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, USENIX Security, CCS, IEEE S&P)
• Familiarity with automated reasoning, program synthesis, or verification methods
• Experience applying LLMs to security and software engineering tasksStrong problem-solving and communication skills