We're looking for PhD candidates to intern on the Machine Learning Platform (Michelangelo) team during summer 2025 (12 weeks). You will be embedded in our engineering team and work closely with other specialists, software developers, and product managers. As a PhD intern, you will work on an exciting yet bold problem in depth and independently, under the supervision of an experienced engineer on that team.

About the Team

The Machine Learning Platform is responsible for building the ML ecosystem and providing the tool chains for ML engineers at Uber. All critical ML applications at Uber are built and powered by this platform. The organization is formed of talented teams of engineers and ML engineers with a combination of both strong industrial and academia backgrounds. In particular, we are looking for Ph.D interns to conduct research and studies on LLM and RAG qualities about how we can improve NLP-based search quality and RAG quality, and model explainability.

What You'll Do

• Drive exciting, ambitious, previously-unsolved projects from end to end

• Thrive in ambiguous product requirements

• Collaborate with product managers and data scientists closely

• Make data driven decisions, with exceptional execution

• Be motivated to own projects and push them forward with independence

• Most meaningfully, have a passion to make Uber better for our customers

Basic Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program studying modeling techniques, model explanations, model analytics, embeddings, and/or NLP

• Candidates must have at least one semester/quarter of their education left following the internship

• Knowledge of the underlying technical foundations of distributed model training and serving, and model evaluation methodologies

• Experience in Python

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and business partners

• Experience in simplifying/converting business problems into technical problems

• Research mentality with a bias towards action to structure a project from idea to experimentation to prototype to implementation

• Experience presenting at industry recognized academic conferences and a good publishing record

For San Francisco, CA-based roles: The base hourly rate amount for this role is USD$67.00 per hour. For Sunnyvale, CA-based roles: The base hourly rate amount for this role is USD$67.00 per hour. For all US locations, you will also be eligible for various benefits.

Uber is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing this form- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdb_Y9Bv8-lWDMbpidF2GKXsxzNh11wUUVS7fM1znOfEJsVeA/viewform