PhD Research Intern (AI)

TL;DR

PhD Research Intern (AI): Leading the development of a multi-modality temporal foundation encoder to support 3D object detection and segmentation with an accent on sensor fusion across vision, LiDAR, Radar, and language. Focus on improving system performance on long-tail events and enhancing perception in adverse environmental conditions like rain and fog.

Location: Hybrid (Foster City, CA or Boston, MA). Ability to relocate to the Bay Area or Boston for the duration of the internship is required.

Salary: $9,500 per month

Company

hirify.global is developing a safe, autonomous ride-hailing system to transform personal transportation.

What you will do

• Lead the development of a Multi-Modal Foundation Encoder (MMFE) supporting 3D object detection, tracking, and segmentation.
• Improve perception performance on long-tail events and rare classes using large-capacity foundation models.
• Enhance robustness to occlusion and performance in adverse weather conditions (rain, fog).
• Develop long-range sensing capabilities for highway driving.
• Explore novel research directions including tri-modal foundation models and self-supervised pre-training for the goal of publication.

Requirements

• Currently working towards a Ph.D. or advanced degree in a relevant engineering program.
• Ability to relocate to the Bay Area, California or Boston, Massachusetts for the internship duration.
• Available for a 12-week internship during Summer 2026 cohorts.
• At least one previous industry internship, co-op, or relevant project completed.
• Good academic standing.

Nice to have

• PhD focus on Deep Learning, Computer Vision, or Autonomous Driving.
• Publication record in top-tier conferences such as CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, or ICRA.
• Experience training foundation models (VLMs, LLMs, VLAs) with large-scale autonomous driving datasets.
• Hands-on experience with 3D object detection, tracking, or segmentation.
• Familiarity with 4D radar, 3D Gaussian Splatting, or self-supervised pre-training.

Culture & Benefits

• Hands-on experience with cutting-edge technology and mentorship from industry experts.
• Medical insurance.
• Housing stipend.
• Opportunity to make meaningful contributions to real-world autonomous vehicle projects.