Staff Research Scientist, Intern - PhD Agentic AI

Visa; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 77,000 - 87,000; Full time

Job summary

Visa Research offers a 12-week internship program where you will work on impactful AI projects to advance Visa's mission. You will build connections, strengthen communication and business skills, and gain hands-on experience in a dynamic, global environment.

You'll attend workshops and sessions to build expertise, expand industry knowledge, and elevate professional skills, while contributing, collaborating, and innovating in a supportive team.

Qualifications

• PhD candidate with expected graduation December 2027 or later.
• Strong research record with publications, patents, or presentations.
• Experience with AI agents, AI safety, alignment, trustworthy AI, or reliable LLMs.
• Familiarity with multi-agent systems, agent frameworks, planning or evaluation techniques.
• Knowledge of reducing hallucinations, guardrails, or secure AI system design.
• Proficiency in Python, C++, Java, or similar.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research to advance AI agent reliability and safety.
• Design methods to improve efficiency via compression, quantization, fine-tuning.
• Develop guardrail systems to promote responsible AI interactions.
• Explore multi-agent architectures for secure collaboration.
• Build tools to benchmark agent safety, robustness, and performance.
• Prototype ideas to translate research into practical AI capabilities.
• Contribute to research publications and technical reports.

Skills

Research publications

AI safety

Multi-agent systems

Python

C++

Java

Education

PhD candidate with expected graduation December 2027 or later

Tools

Python

C++

Java

Job description

About Us

Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale - tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world.

Join Visa and do work that matters - to you, to your community, and to the world. Progress starts with you.

Job Description

Visa's Internship Program offers a 12-week immersive experience where you'll work on impactful projects that advance Visa's mission. As a Visa intern, you'll build meaningful connections, strengthen your communication and business skills, and gain hands‑on experience in a dynamic, global environment.

You'll have access to interactive workshops and learning sessions designed to build expertise, expand industry knowledge, and elevate your professional skills. You'll not only learn, you'll contribute, collaborate, and innovate. Beyond professional development, enjoy social events that foster community and connection.

The program culminates in a final presentation, where you'll share your project achievements and recommendations with Visa leaders-a chance to demonstrate impact and growth.

Our Team

Visa Research expands Visa's technology research capabilities globally, conducting both applied and fundamental research. We partner closely with technology, product teams, academics, and governments to explore and develop technologies critical to the future of payments.

Artificial Intelligence

The GenAI Research team drives purpose‑driven research to advance the next generation of AI for secure, intelligent, and scalable commerce. Our work spans:

• Agentic AI: autonomous and collaborative AI agents for reasoning, planning, safe system interaction, and applications such as agentic commerce, enterprise AI workflows, and AI coding.

Job Duties

• Conduct research to improve AI agent reliability, reduce hallucinations, and advance safety, security, and ethical alignment.
• Design techniques to enhance AI agent efficiency, such as model compression, quantization, fine‑tuning strategies, and inference optimization.
• Develop and evaluate secure access control and guardrail systems that promote responsible AI interactions.
• Investigate multi‑agent architectures for secure, coordinated, and efficient collaboration.
• Build tools and frameworks to benchmark agent safety, robustness, and performance.
• Prototype and experiment to translate research ideas into practical AI capabilities.
• Contribute to research publications, patents, and technical reports where appropriate.

All Visa roles require digital fluency, including the ability to work with emerging technologies such as Generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot) to support everyday work.

Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.

U.S. APPLICANTS ONLY: The estimated hourly range for a new hire into this position is $56.00 to $63.00 which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job‑related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.

Information for US Applicants

For roles located in the US, the estimated hourly rate is $56.00 to $63.00 USD. The hourly rate may vary depending on job‑related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.

Work Hours

Varies upon the needs of the department.

Travel Requirements

This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.

Mental/Physical Requirements

This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.

Visa is an EEO Employer

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protect veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• Students pursuing a Ph.D. with a graduation date in December 2027 or later

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong research record demonstrated bypublications, patents, conference presentations, or technical contributions.
• Research experience in AI agents, AI safety, security, alignment, trustworthy AI, or reliable LLM systems.
• Experience with multi‑agent systems, agent frameworks, planning, or evaluation techniques.
• Knowledge of techniques for reducing hallucinations, enhancing factuality, enabling guardrails, enforcing policies, or building secure AI systems.
• Experience applying efficiency methods such as compression, quantization, fine‑tuning, or inference optimization.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, C++, Java, or similar.
• Strong communication, collaboration, and analytical problem‑solving skills.
• Ability to innovate, adapt to ambiguity, and tackle complex research challenges. We value curiosity and continuous learning.