Member of Technical Staff - Research Intern - Palo Alto, United States
Originally posted 10 February 2026 by the employer.
About the role
As a Research Intern at Architect Labs, you will spend 3 months working alongside the founding team to explore how AI models explore and optimize hardware designs. Experiments directly influence the core modeling roadmap across software and custom silicon.
What you'll do
- Co-design and implement Reinforcement Learning experiments (GRPO/PPO/DPO), training data mixes, and reward signal explorations. - Contribute to research on post-training techniques, running ablation studies to improve model reasoning and alignment capabilities. - Implement and test new algorithms for model fine-tuning and evaluation, translating research papers into working prototypes. - Analyze experimental results and debug model behavior to establish best practices for training recipes.
What you'll need
- Currently pursuing a PhD, Master’s degree, or undergraduate degree with strong research experience in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics, or a related field. - Strong academic understanding or project experience with Reinforcement Learning (including PPO, DPO, and GRPO) with the ability to read and implement concepts from recent research papers. - Strong proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks including PyTorch to write clean, efficient research code. - Experience with training or fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) or familiarity with modern NLP tools such as Transformers and HuggingFace.
Nice to have
- Previous internship experience at frontier AI labs or research organizations. - Publications or submissions in ML venues (NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML) or EDA venues (DAC, ICCAD). - Familiarity with hardware design concepts, Verilog, RTL, or EDA tools.
Skills: Reinforcement Learning, AI models, hardware designs, post-training techniques, LLMs
This role has been open 125 days — well above the 85-day median for AI/ML Hardware Engineering roles.
AI/ML Hardware Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
508
|
Median days open
85 d
|
Median salary
$236k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Architect Labs | All employers we track in this specialty (508 roles · 76 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 3 | 508 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 4 | 6291 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 125 d | 85 d (+40 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $236k |
Skills observed across this category: Reinforcement Learning, AI models, hardware designs, post-training techniques, LLMs
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 104 open roles · median 113 d
- NVIDIA · 91 open roles · median 57 d
- AMD · 38 open roles · median 95 d
- Micron Technology · 27 open roles · median 57 d
- Analog Devices · 18 open roles · median 40 d
- Mobileye · 18 open roles · median 85 d
How we counted: 508 open AI/ML Hardware Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 76 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 22 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.