Netflix

Machine Learning/AI Scientist PhD Intern, Winter 2027

Netflix$83K — $177K *
Consumer Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Currently enrolled PhD student (2nd-4th year preferred) in relevant fields such as Computer Science or Machine Learning.
  • Availability for 40 hours per week onsite in Los Gatos, housing/relocation support provided.
  • Domain expertise in areas like Personalization & Recommender Systems, NLP, or Computer Vision.
  • Proficiency in programming languages (Python, Java, Scala, or C/C++).
  • Familiarity with ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX) and GPU training.
  • Experience with distributed training frameworks (e.g., DDP, DeepSpeed).
  • Strong communication skills and a self-motivated attitude.

Responsibilities

  • Conduct machine learning research to enhance various Netflix business functions.
  • Develop and optimize personalization algorithms and recommender systems.
  • Explore innovative machine learning applications across multiple domains including NLP and computer vision.
  • Collaborate with teams to improve machine learning infrastructure and production deployment.
  • Analyze and evaluate the performance of machine learning models in real-world scenarios.

Benefits

  • Internships are paid and have a minimum duration of 12 weeks.
  • Comprehensive health plans including mental health support.
  • 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer matching contributions.
  • Flexible paid leave of absence programs and generous paid time off.
  • Stock option program and other family-forming benefits.
Full Job Description
Machine learning research at Netflix improves various aspects of our business, including personalization algorithms, member and title understanding, creative tooling, system optimization, and innovative tooling. Our research spans many areas of machine learning, including recommender systems, reinforcement learning, computer vision, natural language processing, optimization, causality, and operations research. Great applied research also requires robust machine learning infrastructure, another strong emphasis at Netflix.

We are looking for individuals with the following qualifications:
  • Currently enrolled student pursuing a PhD (2nd-4th year preferred) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, Economics, Computational Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Cognitive Science, or a related field
  • Available to work onsite, 40 hours per week in Los Gatos (housing/relocation support provided)
  • Domain expertise in one or more of the following areas:
    • Personalization & Recommender Systems: Transformers/LLMs for recommendations, collaborative filtering, content-based recommendation, hybrid systems, conversational recommenders
    • Natural Language Processing (NLP): Large Language Models, fine-tuning, in-context learning, prompt engineering, alignment, evaluation, text generation, embeddings
    • Computer Vision (CV): Image and video understanding, generation, and representation learning
    • Reliable ML: Robustness, fairness, uncertainty quantification, explainability/interpretability
    • Causal ML: Causal inference, causal discovery, double ML, policy learning, dynamic panel/choice modeling
    • Agentic AI: LLM agents, tool use, retrieval-augmented reasoning, memory and goal management, multi-step reasoning
    • Multimodal Data: Modeling across text/image/video/audio, modality fusion and alignment, multimodal retrieval
    • Model Optimization & Efficiency: Training/inference efficiency, model benchmarking, compression, distillation
  • Experience programming in at least one language (Python, Java, Scala, or C/C++)
  • Familiarity developing ML models with common frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX) and training on GPUs
  • Familiarity with distributed training/inference paradigms and frameworks (e.g., DDP, FSDP, HSDP, DeepSpeed)
  • Familiarity with end-to-end ML pipelines (training or production deployment) and common challenges like explainability
  • Curious, self-motivated, and excited about solving open-ended challenges at Netflix
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills

Nice to have:
  • Publications in top conferences or journals (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, RecSys, ACL/EMNLP/NAACL, AAAI, CIKM, WWW, UAI, CVPR)
  • Comfort with software engineering best practices (version control, testing, code review)

Program details:
  • 12-week minimum internship with a start date early January 2027
  • Based at our Los Gatos, CA headquarters
  • Intended for students returning to school for at least one semester/quarter after the internship; conversion/return offers are based on business need and headcount, and are not guaranteed

For your application to be considered complete:
  • You will be sent an Airtable form shortly after you submit your application on our careers site; your application will not be considered complete until you fill out and submit this form.
  • Include a Resume or CV with complete contact information (email, phone, mailing address) and a list of relevant coursework and publications (if applicable). You will be asked to include a short statement describing your research experiences and interests, and (optionally) their relevance to Netflix Research. For inspiration, have a look at the Netflix Research site.
  • Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and it's in the applicant's best interest to apply early. The application window will remain open until roles are filled.

About the Internship Program

At Netflix, we offer a personalized experience for interns, and our aim is to offer an experience that mimics what it is like to actually work here. We match qualified interns with projects and groups based on interests and skill sets, and fully embed interns within those groups. Netflix is a unique place to work and we live by our values, so it's worth learning more about our culture.
  • Internships are paid and are a minimum of 12 weeks, with a fixed start date early January 2027 (Winter). Our Winter internships will be located at our headquarters in Los Gatos, CA.
  • This program is intended for students who will be returning to school for at least one semester/quarter following the internship to be eligible for full time employment. Conversion or return offers are based on business need and headcount, and are not guaranteed.

At Netflix, we carefully consider a wide range of compensation factors to determine the Intern top of market. We rely on market indicators to determine compensation and consider your specific job, skills, and experience to get it right. These considerations can cause your compensation to vary and will also be dependent on your location. The overall market range for Netflix Internships is typically $40/hour - $85/hour.

This market range is based on total compensation (vs. only base salary), which is in line with our compensation philosophy. Netflix is a unique culture and environment. Learn more here.

Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs. Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more details about our Benefits here.

Netflix is a unique culture and environment. Learn more here.

Job is open for no less than 7 days and will be removed when the position is filled.

About Netflix

Netflix, Inc. is an American media company founded on August 29, 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, and currently based in Los Gatos, California, with production offices and stages at the Los Angeles-based Hollywood studios (formerly old Warner Brothers studios) and the Albuquerque Studios (formerly ABQ studios). It operates an eponymous over-the-top subscription video on-demand service, which showcases acquired and original programming as well as third-party content licensed from other production companies and distributors. Netflix is also the first streaming media company to be a member of the Motion Picture Association.
Learn more about Netflix
Size
11,300 employees
Market Cap
$127.6 billion
Industry
Net Income
$2.7 billion
Founded
1997
5 Year Trend
+27.5%
Revenue
$24.9 billion
NASDAQ

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