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Machine Learning Engineer, PhD Intern

PhD intern role focused on LLM research, large-scale ML systems, and e-commerce applications including search, recommendations, and knowledge graphs. Requires strong ML foundations and programming skills.

United StatesML EngineeringRemoteEntry level
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About the role

Responsibilities

  • Work on high-impact problems at the intersection of LLM research, large-scale ML systems, and real-world e-commerce applications
  • Query understanding: Use cutting-edge AI and LLM-based techniques to understand user intent, refine queries, and support downstream retrieval and ranking
  • Search relevance and ranking: Improve search relevance by incorporating signals from user behavior, catalog knowledge, and generative models, including hybrid retrieval and ranking systems
  • Generative recommendations: Push boundaries of generative and traditional models intersection across retrieval and ranking systems; develop scalable feedback and reward modeling approaches for closed-loop learning (RFT)
  • LLM evaluation and AIQA systems: Build LLM-based evaluation frameworks (e.g., LLM-as-a-Judge, self-critique) to improve quality and reliability of generative and agentic systems
  • Low-latency and scalable LLM systems: Research techniques to deploy LLMs in high-traffic, latency-sensitive production environments, balancing quality, cost, and latency through cascading, distillation, and selective generation
  • Knowledge graphs: Work on graph data management and knowledge discovery over one of the world's largest grocery catalogs, integrating structured knowledge with LLM-based reasoning and natural language interfaces
  • Sequence modeling: Build temporal models for user behavior prediction

Requirements

  • Ph.D. student in computer science, mathematics, statistics, economics, or related areas
  • Strong programming (Python, Golang) and algorithmic skills
  • Solid foundations in machine learning, algorithms, or optimization
  • Curious, self-motivated, and comfortable working on open-ended problems

Nice-to-Haves

  • Ph.D. student at a top tier university in the United States
  • Hands-on experience with generative or traditional modeling frameworks (PyTorch, Tensorflow, vLLM)
  • Prior industry or research internship in machine learning or AI
  • Interest and experience in translating research ideas into scalable production systems

Compensation

  • CA, NY, CT, NJ: $50/hour
  • WA: $47.50/hour
  • OR, DE, ME, MA, MD, NH, RI, VT, DC, PA, VA, CO, TX, IL, HI: $44/hour
  • All other states: $42/hour

Skills

PythonGoMachine LearningPyTorchTensorFlowvLLMLLMsAlgorithmsOptimizationKnowledge Graphs

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