Staff Research Scientist, Intern - PhD Summer 2026

Visa • Austin, TX

117d • $54 - $62 • Hybrid

About The Position

Visa's Internship Program provides an immersive, 12-week journey where you'll work on impactful projects that drive Visa's mission forward. As a Visa intern, you'll build valuable connections across the organization, sharpen your communication and business acumen, and gain hands-on experience in a dynamic, global environment. Throughout the program, you'll have exclusive access to interactive workshops and learning sessions designed to deepen your expertise, expand your industry knowledge, and elevate your professional skillset. You won't just be learning, you'll be contributing, collaborating, and innovating every step of the way. In addition to professional development, you'll enjoy a variety of intern social events that foster community, connection, and fun throughout the summer. The experience culminates in an exciting final presentation, where you'll showcase your project achievements, share key insights, and present your recommendations to Visa's leaders and stakeholders. This is your chance to demonstrate your business impact, highlight your personal growth, and align your work with Visa's vision for the future. Visa Research is an organization that focuses exclusively on the scientific foundations of existing, emerging and future commerce-related technologies. With the establishment of a formal research organization and the associated long-term commitment to technology research, Visa joins the ranks of a small number of industry leaders with both the insight and ability to substantially influence and systemically impact the future.

Requirements

• Students pursuing a Ph.D. with a graduation date in December 2026 or later.
• Strong communications skills, specifically, the absence of repeated grammatical or typographical errors, clear and concise written and spoken communications that demonstrate professional judgment.

Nice To Haves

• Strong track record in research and impact in the research community in highly reputed journals and conferences through multiple publications, patents and/or presentations at conferences.
• Proven research experience in AI safety, security, or alignment.
• Proficiency with object oriented programming languages, such as Python, C++, Java, and Lua.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills and an eagerness to collaborate with members of your team as well as other Visa teams.
• Demonstrated ability to think outside the box and innovate.
• Experience with multi-agent systems and frameworks.
• The ability to take on challenges and address problems head-on.

Responsibilities

• Research and develop methods to reduce hallucinations and improve factual reliability in AI agents.
• Design access control mechanisms and policy enforcement for secure AI agent interactions.
• Investigate and implement attack mitigation strategies, including Prompt injection defenses and Jailbreak prevention methods.
• Explore multi-agent architectures for secure, coordinated, and efficient collaboration between AI agents.
• Build and evaluate efficiency improvements such as model compression, quantization, and optimized LLM fine-tuning.
• Develop benchmarking frameworks for safety, robustness, and performance evaluation.

Benefits

• Estimated hourly range for a new hire into this position is $54/hr to $62/hr.
• Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.
• This is a hybrid position. Expectation of days in office will be confirmed by your hiring manager.
• This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Intern
• Industry: Credit Intermediation and Related Activities
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree