Cloud Acceleration Research Intern (DPU & AI Infra) - 2027 Start (PhD)

ByteDance; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 68,000 - 97,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Paid holidays

Paid sick time

Housing allowance

Job summary

ByteDance is seeking PhD interns to join the DPU Data Processing Unit team in San Jose. You will conduct research and build prototypes for cloud acceleration and AI infrastructure, leveraging DPUs, GPUs, and custom hardware.

The role emphasizes cross-disciplinary collaboration across hardware, software, and AI workloads. The program blends hands-on learning with professional development, offering rigorous research opportunities and potential production impact.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Able to commit to a full-time, 12-week internship during Summer 2027.
• Proficiency in C/C++ or Rust, including systems-level development and debugging.
• Strong Linux systems development experience
• Solid understanding of OS, computer architecture, networking, or distributed systems.
• Background in software-hardware co-design, computer architecture, distributed storage, high-performance networking, or AI/ML systems.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research and development in DPU-based cloud acceleration and large-scale AI infrastructure.
• Explore software-hardware co-design opportunities for AI/ML infrastructure using DPUs, GPUs, and custom hardware.
• Develop techniques for accelerating distributed AI training and inference, including data movement and memory systems.
• Perform end-to-end performance analysis across hardware, drivers, kernels, libraries, and runtimes.
• Build prototypes and evaluate designs with cloud and AI workloads at scale.
• Collaborate with hardware architects, software, and AI infra teams to move ideas to production.
• Contribute to architecture designs, publications, and long-term research directions.

Skills

C/C++

Rust

Linux

Systems programming

Networking

Education

PhD candidate in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

DPDK

RDMA

eBPF

Hypervisors

Job description

About the Team

The ByteDance DPU (Data Processing Unit) team builds foundational cloud and AI computing infrastructure for ByteDance and Volcano Engine. Our mission is to advance the architecture, development, and research of next-generation software-hardware co-design technologies across compute, networking, and storage for cloud and AI computing. Our technology stack spans

• Cloud virtualization, hypervisors, and operating systems
• High-performance networking, including DPDK and RDMA
• High-speed interconnects, virtual switching, and network offload
• Distributed storage and I/O acceleration
• Orchestration and scheduling for AI/ML workloads

We work at the intersection of systems research, distributed infrastructure, and hardware acceleration. Our technologies operate at cloud scale and help shape the next generation of cloud and AI computing platforms.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. PhD internships at Our Company provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, as well as to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies.

Our dynamic internship experience blends hands-on learning, enriching community-building and professional development events, and collaboration with industry experts.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research and development in DPU-based cloud acceleration and large-scale AI infrastructure.
• Explore software-hardware co-design opportunities for AI/ML infrastructure, leveraging DPUs, GPUs, and custom hardware to optimize distributed training and inference.
• Develop new techniques for accelerating distributed AI training and inference, including communication, data movement, resource management, and memory or cache systems.
• Perform end-to-end performance analysis and optimization across hardware, device drivers, operating-system kernels, communication libraries, and user-space runtimes.
• Build prototypes and evaluate proposed designs using representative cloud and AI workloads at scale.
• Collaborate with hardware architects, systems engineers, and AI infrastructure teams to transition research ideas into production.
• Contribute to technical proposals, architecture designs, publications, patents, and longer-term research directions

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Able to commit to a full-time, 12-week internship during Summer 2027.
• Proficiency in C/C++ or Rust, including systems-level development and debugging.
• Strong Linux systems development experience
• Solid understanding of operating systems, computer architecture, networking, or distributed systems.
• Background in at least one of: software-hardware co-design, computer architecture, distributed storage systems, high-performance networking, or AI/ML systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Record of research demonstrated through publications, technical reports, open-source contributions, or substantial research projects.
• Experience designing, implementing, and evaluating production-quality or research prototype systems.
• Familiarity with one or more of the following:
• DPDK, RDMA, eBPF, or high-performance communication libraries
• Hypervisors, kernel bypass, device virtualization, or hardware offload
• LLM serving, disaggregated inference, or KV-cache management
• Distributed data loading, preprocessing, or storage systems
• Performance modeling, profiling, or benchmarking
• Strong analytical, creative problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively across research, software, and hardware teams.

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Hourly) - Campus Intern

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $60- $60.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Interns have day one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits and more. Interns also receive 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year). Interns who are not working 100% remote may also be eligible for housing allowance.

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

• Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
• Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
• Exercising sound judgment.

About Us

Founded in 2012, ByteDance's mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. With a suite of more than a dozen products, including TikTok, Lemon8, CapCut and Pico as well as platforms specific to the China market, including Toutiao, Douyin, and Xigua, ByteDance has made it easier and more fun for people to connect with, consume, and create content.

Why Join ByteDance

Inspiring creativity is at the core of ByteDance's mission. Our innovative products are built to help people authentically express themselves, discover and connect – and our global, diverse teams make that possible. Together, we create value for our communities, inspire creativity and enrich life - a mission we work towards every day.

As ByteDancers, we strive to do great things with great people. We lead with curiosity, humility, and a desire to make impact in a rapidly growing tech company. By constantly iterating and fostering an "Always Day 1" mindset, we achieve meaningful breakthroughs for ourselves, our Company, and our users. When we create and grow together, the possibilities are limitless. Join us.

Diversity & Inclusion

ByteDance is committed to creating an inclusive space where employees are valued for their skills, experiences, and unique perspectives. Our platform connects people from across the globe and so does our workplace. At ByteDance, our mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. To achieve that goal, we are committed to celebrating our diverse voices and to creating an environment that reflects the many communities we reach. We are passionate about this and hope you are too.

Reasonable Accommodation

ByteDance is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our recruitment processes for candidates with disabilities, pregnancy, sincerely held religious beliefs or other reasons protected by applicable laws. If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at https://tinyurl.com/RA-request