PhD Intern: Interactive Design Tools Engineer
Design Better Podcast
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Figma offers a 12 or 16-week Summer 2027 PhD internship in San Francisco or New York, blending HCI research with hands-on engineering to shape interactive design tooling. You'll work with mentors and cross-functional teams to translate research into production-ready systems and gain real-world impact.
Applicants should be a 4th or 5th year PhD student in CS/HCI/AI/ML, with proven ability to turn complex concepts into practical solutions, and have programming experience.
Qualifications
- Current enrollment as a 4th or 5th year PhD student pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related field
- Demonstrated ability to translate complex research concepts into practical, scalable solutions
- A track record of rigorous problem-solving through academic or applied research
- Proficiency in at least one general purpose coding language
Responsibilities
- Be embedded onto a Figma team working on research areas intersecting with internship focus
- Drive projects applying research insights to product challenges
- Collaborate with engineers, PMs, designers, and researchers to scope and execute work
- Develop, validate, and document solutions from prototypes to production-ready systems
- Share expertise through presentations, reviews, and cross-functional collaboration
- Deliver a project with real impact by the end of the internship
Skills
Education
Job description
Figma offers a 12 or 16-week Summer 2027 PhD internship in San Francisco or New York, blending HCI research with hands-on engineering to shape interactive design tooling. You'll work with mentors and cross-functional teams to translate research into production-ready systems and gain real-world impact.
Applicants should be a 4th or 5th year PhD student in CS/HCI/AI/ML, with proven ability to turn complex concepts into practical solutions, and have programming experience.
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