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Research Scientist Intern, User Modeling and Reinforcement Learning (PhD)

Meta

Bellevue, WAInternship$7,650–12,667/moSeen 1 day agoSeen in employer's feed today

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At a glance

Compensation
$7,650–12,667/mo
Location
Bellevue, WA
Role Type
Internship
Schedule
Internship
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Requirements

Credentials this posting asks for.

Doctorate

Job overview

Meta’s Core Ads Growth team seeks a Research Scientist Intern to conduct research on user modeling and reinforcement learning, connecting new ideas to experiments and applications in its advertising systems. The intern will own a focused research project with mentorship from researchers and engineers, with opportunities to contribute to publications and product development. The internship lasts 12 to 16 weeks, or 24 weeks, with start dates throughout the year.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Deep Learning FrameworksPythonC++Machine LearningDeep LearningSelf-Supervised LearningTransformersTemporal Sequence ModelingRepresentation LearningRecommender SystemsReinforcement LearningCausal InferenceCounterfactual EvaluationDelayed and Censored OutcomesComplex Data AnalysisControlled Machine Learning ExperimentsSoftware EngineeringQuantitative Problem-SolvingCross-Disciplinary CommunicationTeamwork

Qualifications

PhD in Listed or Related FieldWork Authorization in Employment CountryResearch Results and PublicationsReturn to Degree Program

Full job description

Summary:

Meta is seeking Research Scientist Interns to join Core Ads Growth (CAG), where we build AI that improves ad relevance and helps advertisers succeed. Our research focuses on how user intent evolves across interactions and how ads systems can make better decisions when outcomes unfold over days, weeks, or longer.We are advancing representation learning to better understand how people's interests and intent evolve over time. You will help bring new research ideas into production systems at Meta's scale, shaping more relevant experiences and creating lasting value for people and businesses.As an intern, you will own a focused research project with close mentorship from researchers and engineers. The work connects new ideas to rigorous experiments and applications in Meta's ads systems, with opportunities to contribute to scientific publications and product development.Our internships are twelve (12) to sixteen (16), or twenty-four (24) weeks long, with various start dates throughout the year.

Required Skills:

Research Scientist Intern, User Modeling and Reinforcement Learning (PhD) Responsibilities:

  1. Conduct original research to advance artificial intelligence and machine learning.

  2. Explore novel ideas and help shape future research directions.

  3. Collaborate with researchers and engineers across Meta on ambitious research challenges.

  4. Bring promising research ideas to life in products used by people and businesses around the world.

  5. Share research findings through publications and engagement with the broader research community.

Minimum Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

  1. Currently has or is in the process of obtaining a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Reinforcement Learning, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related technical field

  2. Must obtain work authorization in the country of employment at the time of hire and maintain ongoing work authorization during employment

  3. Experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow

  4. Experience with Python, C++, or another relevant programming language

  5. Experience conducting research and building systems based on machine learning or deep learning methods

Preferred Qualifications:

Preferred Qualifications:

  1. Intent to return to a degree program after completion of the internship/co-op

  2. Experience in one or more of self-supervised learning, transformers, temporal sequence modeling, representation learning, or recommender systems

  3. Experience in reinforcement learning, causal inference, counterfactual evaluation, or learning from delayed and censored outcomes

  4. Proven track record of achieving significant research results as demonstrated by grants, fellowships, patents, as well as first-authored publications at leading workshops or conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, KDD, RecSys, and similar conferences or workshops

  5. Experience manipulating and analyzing complex, high-volume, high-dimensional data and designing controlled machine learning experiments

  6. Demonstrated software engineering experience through internships, research implementations, or open-source contributions

  7. Self-directed quantitative problem-solving and experience working and communicating across disciplines in a team environment

Public Compensation:

$7,650/month to $12,667/month + benefits

Industry: Internet

Equal Opportunity:

Meta is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Meta participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law. Please note that Meta may leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in connection with applications for employment.

Meta is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let us know at [email protected].

How this job compares

Set against the 2,289 open Research Scientist jobs on Olive Jobs, counted October 29, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$7,650–12,667/mo
  • Washington median$167–246K/yr112 salary ranges
  • US median$34–48/hr45 hourly ranges
Openings
Olive Jobs lists 169 open Research Scientist jobs in Washington and 2,289 across the US. 3% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in Washington
Experience
Research Scientist postings that state a minimum ask for 5 years of experience at the median; the middle half ask for 2 to 6 years (1,264 postings).
Education
This posting asks for a doctorate or professional degree; 821 of the 2,289 open Research Scientist jobs (36%) ask for a doctorate or professional degree.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on October 29, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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