Research Scientist Intern (Seed Responsible AI) - 2026 Start (PhD)

ByteDance; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 97,000 - 138,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

10 paid holidays per year

Housing allowance

Job summary

ByteDance’s Seed team seeks a Research Scientist Intern (Seed Responsible AI) in San Jose, starting 2026, to advance AI foundation models and agents. You will conduct rigorous research to improve reliability and safety, while contributing to product development with AI ethics considerations.

This internship targets PhD candidates with a strong ML/NLP research background and coding skills in C/C++ or Python. The role requires US work authorization.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong background in at least one area: LLM training, LLM interpretability, LLM agents, RL, or LLM/AI agent safety.
• Excellent coding ability, data structures and algorithms; proficient in C/C++ or Python.
• Experience with influential ML/NLP/LLM papers or projects is preferred.
• Excellent problem analysis and solving skills.
• Good communication and collaboration skills.
• Must be eligible to work in the United States; no sponsorship provided.

Responsibilities

• Developing advanced AI technologies, focusing on foundation models and agents.
• Conducting research to make AI technologies more reliable, safe, and trustworthy.
• Contributing to product development with regards to AI safety and AI ethics.

Skills

PhD candidate

LLM safety research

C/C++ or Python

Competitive programming

Research publishing

Communication skills

Education

PhD or equivalent

Job description

Research Scientist Intern (Seed Responsible AI) - 2026 Start (PhD)

Location:

San Jose

Team:

Technology

Employment Type:

Intern

Job Code:

A168827

Share this listing:

Responsibilities

• Developing advanced technologies in AI, particularly AI foundation models and AI agents
• Conducting research on the technologies of AI to make them more reliable, safe, and trustworthy
• Contributing to the development of products in the company with regards to AI safety and AI ethics

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field
• Strong research background in at least one of the areas: large language model (LLM) training, LLM interpretability, LLM agents, reinforcement learning, or LLM / AI agent safety
• Excellent coding ability, data structures, and fundamental algorithm skills, proficient in C/C++ or Python, winners of competitions such as ACM/ICPC, IOI, TopCoder etc. are preferred
• Experience with influential projects or papers in ML, NLP, LLM, is preferred
• Excellent problem analysis and solving skills
• Good communication and collaboration skills

As a condition of employment, all successful candidates must be able to establish authorization to work in the United States. For this position, the Company does not provide sponsorship or any immigration-related benefits.

Job Information

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $85- $85.

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.

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:

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.

About Doubao (Seed)

Established in 2023, the ByteDance Seed team is dedicated to pioneering new paths toward artificial general intelligence. We aspire to advance the frontier of intelligence to drive progress for both technology and society.

With a long-term vision for the AI sector, the Seed team's research spans MLLM, GenMedia, AI for Science, and Robotics. We maintain a global presence with laboratories and career opportunities across China, Singapore, and the United States. To date, we have launched industry-leading general foundation models and cutting-edge multimodal capabilities. Our technology powers over 50 application scenarios - including Doubao, Jimeng, TRAE, Dola and Dreamnia - and serves enterprise customers through Volcano Engine and BytePlus. Third-party data shows that the Doubao App ranks first in user volume in the Chinese market, while Doubao foundation models lead the industry in average daily token consumption.

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