Research Intern (RDMA/High Speed Network) - 2026 Start (PhD)

ByteDance; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 68,191 - 97,120; Part time

Job summary

ByteDance is hiring a Research Intern (RDMA/High Speed Network) in San Jose to start in 2026. You will design, optimize and deploy high-performance transport protocols and congestion control for AI/LLM applications, and explore AI network frameworks and protocols.

The role requires pursuing a PhD in computer networking, strong programming in C/C++, Python or Go, and knowledge of RDMA and high-speed networks. This internship offers hands-on research with real impact.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in computer networking or a related field.
• Experience with TCP, RoCEv2 and socket/verbs based network programming.
• Familiar with data center congestion control algorithms.
• Knowledge of scale-up protocols like PCIe, NVLink, UALink and scale-out networks.
• Proficiency in C/C++, Python, or Go.
• Knowledge of GPU architecture.
• Experience with NCCL, MPI or RPC libraries is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design, optimize, implement and deploy high-performance transport protocols for AI/LLM apps.
• Design and optimize congestion control algorithms for AI workloads.
• R&D of high-performance AI communication frameworks and protocol stacks.
• Survey academia and industry advances and present findings in papers.

Skills

C/C++

Python

Socket programming

RDMA

High-speed networks

Go

GPU architecture

NCCL

MPI / RPC

Education

PhD in computer networking

Tools

NCCL

MPI

RPC libraries

Job description

Research Intern (RDMA/High Speed Network) - 2026 Start (PhD)

Location: San Jose

Team: Technology

Employment Type: Intern

Job Code: A178431

Responsibilities

• Design, optimization, implementation and deployment of high-performance transport protocols to support AI/LLM applications.
• Design, optimization, implementation and deployment of congestion control algorithms to support AI/LLM applications.
• Research and development of high-performance AI communication framework, network protocol stacks, and co-design optimization of host-network-application to improve the scalability, reliability and performance of AI/LLM networks.
• Follow the latest technologies from academia and industry, identify the innovative parts of the system and present in academic papers.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in computer networking or a related technical discipline.
• Experience with at least one of the following areas:
  • Be familiar with network protocols like TCP and RoCEv2, have experience in network programming based on Socket and verbs APIs;
  • Be familiar with Data Center congestion control algorithms, understand their pros and cons;
  • Knowledge of scale-up protocols like PCIe, NVLink, UALink, and their differences with scale-out network protocols;
  • Be familiar with the latest advances in the area of high-speed network systems, including RDMA, congestion control, AI network optimization and so on;
  • Proficiency in one or several mainstream programming languages, including C/C++, Python, Go and so on;
  • Have some knowledge of GPU architecture;
  • Experience in developing high performance communication frameworks (including NCCL, MPI and RPC libraries) is a plus.

Preferred Qualifications

• Be familiar with AI training/inference systems and software-hardware co-design.
• Having top tier networking conference publications such as NSDI, SIGCOMM, OSDI, SOSP etc.

Job Information

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

Benefits

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.

Equal Employment Opportunity

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:

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

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