Research Engineer Intern (Ethical Creative and Protective AI Lab)

Sony Corporate Technology Center America, a branch of Sony AI, is a remotely distributed organization spread across the U.S. and Canada. Sony AI is Sony’s new research organization pursuing the mission to use AI to unleash human creativity. Sony AI works closely with Sony’s other business units, including Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC., Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., and Sony Music Entertainment. With some 900 million Sony devices in hands and homes worldwide today, a vast array of Sony movies, television shows and music, and the PlayStation Network, Sony creates and delivers more entertainment experiences to more people than anyone else on earth. To learn more: https://ai.sony/

About Sony Ethical Creative and Protective AI Lab

Sony is dedicated to driving innovation, advancing technology and ensuring that AI is developed responsibly, ethically, and inclusively. The Ethical Creative and Protective AI Lab focuses on creating frameworks, tools, and methodologies that advance the state-of-the-art, while promoting trust, transparency, fairness, and accountability in AI systems and technologies.

THIS POSITION WILL START IN JANUARY 2027 AND REQUIRE FULL TIME 30+ WORKING HOURS.

Position Summary

We are seeking a motivated and passionate Research Engineer Intern to join our interdisciplinary team working at the forefront of Responsible AI for a 3 month internship. As an intern, you will contribute to cutting-edge projects using multimodal generative AI to address fundamental challenges associated with AI adoption in a global multimedia company. This internship will provide you with hands-on experience exploring the responsible development of

generative AI and offers a unique opportunity to work alongside researchers and engineers in a globally diverse team.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

● Contribute to post-training and evaluation infrastructure for a novel multimodal AI

system.

● Fine-tune models using supervised learning and reinforcement learning-based

approaches (e.g., SFT, RLAIF, RLVR)

● Define and implement custom metrics for evaluating different fine-tuning approaches.

● Contribute to the development of tools and frameworks to assess and mitigate AI-related

risks in generative AI.

● Contribute to influential research outcomes in top-tier conferences and journals.

● Be self-motivated and capable of proposing and implementing innovative ideas.

● Honesty, trustworthiness and ethical conduct are material requirements for the responsibilities outlined above

QUALIFICATIONS FOR POSITION

Your qualifications and experience should include: 

● Completed or currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related scientific discipline.

● Strong preference for hands-on experience with RL fine-tuning of LLMs and/or VLMs.

● Experience with LLM/VLM tooling and frameworks, API integration, and prompt engineering.

● Familiarity with and interest in responsible AI development.

● Strong understanding of machine learning fundamentals.

● Strong research, analytical, and problem-solving skills.

● Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

The target hourly rate for this internship is $50.00 per hour. The individual will be paid hourly and eligible for overtime.

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All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any basis protected by applicable federal, state, or local law, ordinance, or regulation.

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