Video/Image AI/ML Software Engineer Intern (Multimedia) - 2027 Start (PhD)

ByteDance; San Diego (CA); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 92,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Life insurance

Wellbeing benefits

Housing allowance

Paid holidays

Paid sick time

Job summary

ByteDance in San Diego is seeking PhD internship candidates to contribute to industry‑leading video codec hardware and software. You will design algorithms, C-models, and firmware for advanced video encoding and processing on FPGA/ASIC accelerators.

The role involves prototyping and evaluating video quality metrics, building datasets, and collaborating with research and engineering teams to translate research into production pipelines.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD in a technical field.
• Strong programming, debugging, and optimization in C/C++ and/or Python.
• Solid understanding of image/video analysis or quality assessment methods.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research on video analysis algorithms (ROI, content understanding, feature extraction).
• Develop image/video quality evaluation methods (objective and learning-based).
• Build datasets, benchmarks, and evaluation pipelines for multimedia quality.
• Explore video quality optimization across analysis, enhancement, processing, and encoding.

Skills

C/C++

Python

Image/video analysis

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Experiment independently

Communication

Education

PhD student in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics

Tools

None

Job description

About the team

Our team is building industry leading, highly efficient and scalable video codec hardware solutions (FPGA and ASIC) from the ground up to better serve our billions of users. We are looking for strong software and firmware engineers to design algorithms, C-model, and firmware for advanced video encoding and processing implemented in dedicated hardware accelerators. The successful candidate will be part of a fast growing team that includes algorithm, architecture, software, firmware, and hardware design and verification experts with a dedication to technical excellence and a passion to build large-scale and high-performing video platforms and services.

We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship. PhD internships at Our Company provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, as well as to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies.

Our dynamic internship experience blends hands‑on learning, enriching community‑building and professional development events, and collaboration with industry experts.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research and development on video analysis algorithms, including but not limited to region-of-interest (ROI) detection, content understanding, feature extraction, and perceptual quality assessment.
• Support the design and implementation of image/video quality evaluation methods, including both objective and learning-based approaches.
• Assist in building and curating datasets, benchmarks, and evaluation pipelines for multimedia quality and content analysis tasks.
• Contribute to end-to-end video quality optimization solutions by combining video analysis, enhancement, processing, and encoding techniques, such as frame-level rate control and perceptual optimization strategies.
• Apply developed algorithms to VOD and live streaming use cases, including quality monitoring, data analysis, objective evaluation, and performance validation.
• Prototype, train, and optimize machine learning / deep learning models for multimedia understanding and quality-related tasks.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including infrastructure, platform, and engineering teams, to help integrate research prototypes into production workflows.
• Participate in offline experiments, online validation, and A/B testing analysis to measure algorithm impact and guide iteration.
• Document research findings, experimental results, and technical insights, and communicate them clearly to both research and engineering stakeholders.

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a PhD degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related technical field.
• Strong programming, debugging, and optimization skills in one or more general-purpose programming languages, such as C/C++ and/or Python.
• Solid understanding of image/video analysis or image/video quality assessment methods.
• Familiarity with commonly used objective quality metrics and related techniques, such as VMAF, PSNR, SSIM, or similar approaches.
• Hands‑on experience with machine learning or deep learning and familiarity with frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Ability to conduct experiments independently, analyze results rigorously, and iterate based on data.
• Good written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work effectively in a collaborative research and engineering environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Research or hands‑on experience with Transformer architectures, multimodal large models (MLLMs), or vision‑language/video‑language modeling.
• Familiarity with video processing and enhancement algorithms, such as super‑resolution, restoration, denoising, or diffusion‑based approaches.
• Understanding of video codecs and compression standards, such as AVC, HEVC, AV1, and VP9, with exposure to video codec design or optimization preferred.
• Experience in perceptual video optimization, learned compression, or quality‑driven encoding strategies.
• Familiarity with multimedia system deployment, production experimentation, or large‑scale evaluation pipelines.
• Exposure to embedded systems, processors such as ARM or RISC‑V, or real‑time development in RTOS environments is a plus.
• Demonstrated passion for turning advanced research into impactful real‑world applications.

Job Information

【For Pay Transparency】Compensation Description (Hourly) - Campus Intern The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $57- $57. 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:

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

About Us

Founded in 2012, ByteDance's mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. With a suite of more than a dozen products, including TikTok, Lemon8, CapCut and Pico as well as platforms specific to the China market, including Toutiao, Douyin, and Xigua, ByteDance has made it easier and more fun for people to connect with, consume, and create content.

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