[2027] Applied Scientist - PhD Intern

Every day, tens of millions of people come to Roblox to explore, create, play, learn, and connect with friends in 3D immersive digital experiences– all created by our global community of developers and creators.

At Roblox, we’re building the tools and platform that empower our community to bring any experience that they can imagine to life. Our vision is to reimagine the way people come together, from anywhere in the world, and on any device. We’re on a mission to connect a billion people with optimism and civility, and looking for amazing talent to help us get there.

A career at Roblox means you’ll be working to shape the future of human interaction, solving unique technical challenges at scale, and helping to create safer, more civil shared experiences for everyone.

At Roblox, we believe advanced research belongs in production, driving core algorithmic advances at a global scale. Machine Learning is a key growth lever, powering everything from real-time 3D generative AI to complex ecosystem economics across our global platform. As an Applied Scientist - PhD Intern, you’ll be part of a community of curious scientists and engineers building the foundational and applied ML methods at a scale of millions of daily active users and billions of daily AI requests. We combine innovative research—including Computer Vision and Graphics, multimodality, NLP, and recommendation systems—with world scaling distributed engineering.

During your 12 or 16 week internship in the Winter, Summer, or Fall, you’ll own a high-impact project from ideation and experimentation to production and publication. There’s also the possibility of continued collaboration beyond your internship, as we support experimentation and production with top researchers, engineers, faculty, and PhD candidates globally that can lead to publications at esteemed venues.

You Will

• Prototype, experiment with, and deploy advanced AI, machine learning, and 3D technologies to solve real-world challenges at scale.
• Translate cutting-edge research into production-ready features alongside our community of curious, cross-functional engineering and product teams.
• Develop, deliver, and optimize solutions that measurably enhance user experience, safety, and creativity on our platform.

You Have

• Possess or are pursuing a PhD in computer science, engineering, or a related field, with a thesis aligned to Roblox’s research areas.
• Deep expertise in a relevant technical domain, including deep learning, computer vision, NLP, reinforcement learning, or distributed systems.
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, C++, Go, Java) with experience building and optimizing large-scale systems.
• A strong research track record, evidenced by multiple publications and presentations in highly regarded peer-reviewed venues.

You may redact age, date of birth, and dates of attendance/graduation from your resume.

For roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job-related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual hourly rate could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. Please note that not all benefits shown on this page are applicable to internship opportunities.

Hourly Pay Range$72—$72 USD

Roles that are based in an office are onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted).

Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process.

For US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.