PhD Machine Learning Internship 2026 (USA)

Pinterest • San Francisco, NY

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

With more than 550 million users around the world and 300 billion ideas saved, Pinterest Machine Learning interns help build personalized experiences to help Pinners create a life they love. With just over 3,000 global employees, our teams are small, mighty, and still growing. At Pinterest, you’ll experience hands-on access to an incredible vault of data and contribute large-scale recommendation systems in ways you won’t find anywhere else. As a machine learning intern at Pinterest, you'll work on tackling new challenges in machine learning and artificial intelligence. You'll conduct research that can be applied across Pinterest engineering teams and engage in external collaborations and mentoring, while also performing research in any of the following areas: image recognition, user modeling, recommender systems,search, ads, ranking, natural language processing, neural networks, personalization, graph representation learning, and big data analytics. Note to applicants: By applying to this role, you will be considered for multiple intern roles open across our various ML teams. Please only apply once within the USA or Canada as multiple applications may delay our recruitment process. Internships are 12 weeks paid, with fixed start dates in May or June to accommodate varying school calendars. Depending on the team, our summer internships will be located either remote or hybrid in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York or Seattle offices. We offer 2 internship start dates: May 18, 2026 - August 7, 2026 June 15, 2026 - September 4, 2026

Requirements

• Working towards a PhD in Computer Science, ML, NLP, Statistics, Information Sciences or related field
• Proficiency in at least one systems language (Java, C++, Python) or one ML framework (Tensorflow, Pytorch, MLFlow)
• Experience with big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop/Spark) and scalable realtime systems that process stream data
• Experience in research and in solving analytical problems
• Strong communicator and team player with the ability to find solutions for open-ended problems.

Nice To Haves

• Publications in machine learning, AI, data science, data analytics, statistics, or related technical fields
• Interest in research and in applying ML to impactful real-world problems on the Pinterest product

Responsibilities

• Lead your own project start to finish to contribute in cutting-edge research in machine learning and artificial intelligence that can be applied to Pinterest problems
• Collect, analyze, and synthesize findings from data and build intelligent data-driven models
• Write clean, efficient, and sustainable code
• Use machine learning, natural language processing, and graph analysis to solve modeling and ranking problems across discovery, ads and search
• Scope and independently solve moderately complex problems
• Demonstrate accountability for the quality and completion of your tasks and projects, collaborating with your team and seeking guidance as needed.

Benefits

• Meaningful Work: Contribute to projects that impact millions of users worldwide.
• Mentorship: Learn from and be guided by experienced engineers and researchers in the field.
• Growth and Development: Participate in professional development workshops and networking events to build your skills and connections.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree