Machine Learning Intern - Master's

PlayStation; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 63,000 - 89,000; Part time

Job summary

PlayStation, part of Sony Interactive Entertainment, is seeking a Machine Learning Research Intern to explore multimodal AI for bug detection in games.

Based in San Mateo, you will collaborate with the London Anomaly Detection team and the San Mateo GameLens team, turning research ideas into prototypes while gaining hands-on experience.

Qualifications

• Pursuing a Master's degree in Computer Science, ML, EE, Robotics, or related field.
• Strong foundation in ML, CV, or NLP.
• Proficiency in Python and familiarity with ML libraries.
• Hands-on experience with DL frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Strong problem-solving and collaboration skills.
• Experience with self-supervised learning or multimodal AI is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Research ML techniques to improve game scene representations for bug detection.
• Contribute to multimodal AI research for automated QA.
• Design and run experiments to evaluate model performance.
• Develop prototypes applying AI approaches to PlayStation environments.
• Collaborate with researchers and engineers to share findings.

Skills

Python programming

ML libraries

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Problem solving

Collaboration

Education

Master's degree in Computer Science

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

Join the Game Service ML team within PlayStation Global Research & Development (R&D) at Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and gain hands-on experience applying machine learning research to real-world gaming challenges.

As a Machine Learning Research Intern, you'll explore how multimodal AI can use gameplay video, audio, and/or controller inputs to automatically identify bugs and glitches during game development, certification and compatibility testing. Your work will contribute to research that helps make game QA more efficient for developers and improve gaming experiences for millions of players.

Based in San Mateo, you'll work with the London-based Anomaly Detection focus team and have opportunities to collaborate with researchers and engineers in the San Mateo-based GameLens focus team. With guidance from experienced researchers, you'll take ownership of a focused research problem, explore new machine learning approaches, and gain practical experience turning research ideas into working prototypes.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Research and explore machine learning techniques, including contrastive learning, self-supervised learning and state space models, to improve game scene representations for bug and glitch detection.
• Contribute to multimodal AI research that improves how machine learning models understand gameplay and supports more effective automated QA.
• Design and conduct experiments to evaluate model performance, analyze results, and identify opportunities to improve anomaly and glitch detection.
• Develop and test prototypes that apply promising AI-based approaches to real-world challenges in PlayStation environments.
• Collaborate with researchers and engineers to share findings, incorporate feedback, and contribute ideas to ongoing research discussions.
• Gain hands-on experience applying advanced machine learning methods to gaming, from exploring research questions and conducting experiments to developing working prototypes.

What We’re Looking For:

• Currently pursuing a Master's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field.
• Strong foundation in machine learning, computer vision, or natural language processing.
• Proficiency in Python programming and familiarity with modern ML libraries.
• Hands-on experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Strong problem-solving skills, curiosity, and the ability to collaborate effectively as part of a research team.
• Coursework or prior experience in areas such as self-supervised learning, contrastive learning, state-space models, multimodal AI, or vision-language models is a plus.
• Proficiency in data analysis, signal processing, or statistical modeling is desirable.
• Interest in audio, gaming, game engines, or the intersection of machine learning and game technology is highly desirable.

Eligibility

• Students with expected graduation between May 2026 and December 2029 from an accredited university. Advanced Degree - Master's
• Able to work during one of the following periods: May 17th - August 6th or June 14th - September 3rd. Relocation assistance is available for eligible candidates.
• Must be available for the entire 12-week internship period.

At this time, SIE will only consider applicants who are authorized to work for any employer in the United States and who will not require work visa sponsorship from SIE now or in the future to maintain their authorization to work in the United States.

Our intern positions offer a fixed hourly pay rate. Please note that the pay rate is exclusive to the internship period and may not reflect what pay may look like following the completion of an internship.

Intern Pay Range

$55.25 - $55.25 USD

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights.