Machine Learning Engineer Intern

About the role

## About the Role

Instacart is seeking talented Ph.D. students for Machine Learning Engineer internships across multiple machine learning teams. Interns will have the opportunity to work on large-scale problems involving search, advertising, personalization, recommendation systems, fulfillment, product and knowledge graphs, pricing, fraud detection, logistics, and related areas.

Depending on your background and interests, you may work with teams focused on economics, search and discovery, content AI, generative AI, recommendations, catalog intelligence, NLP, ranking, graph data, causal inference, computer vision, or optimization. Successful candidates will bring strong programming and algorithmic skills, curiosity, communication skills, and a hands-on, self-motivated approach to solving complex machine learning problems.

## Key Responsibilities

• Develop and apply machine learning solutions to large-scale business and customer problems.
• Work on query understanding and use NLP technologies to understand user intent.
• Improve search relevance, ranking, and personalization using signals from multiple sources.
• Develop solutions related to advertising quality, pCTR, revenue, and ROAS.
• Work on knowledge graphs, graph data management, knowledge discovery, and natural language interfaces for data access.
• Apply machine learning approaches to fraud detection and prevention, including cost-sensitive learning.
• Work on pricing problems, including willingness-to-pay estimation and revenue and user-experience optimization.
• Develop optimization solutions for logistics, including supply and demand prediction, last-mile delivery, and in-store optimization.
• Contribute to recommendation systems, including complementary and sequence-based recommendations.
• Work with generative AI, LLMs, agentic systems, computer vision, and catalog intelligence where applicable.
• Collaborate with engineers, data scientists, and product managers on large-scale machine learning challenges.
• Conduct research and contribute to innovative AI and machine learning solutions.

## Required Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, or a related field.
• Strong programming skills in Python and C++.
• Strong algorithmic skills.
• Good communication skills.
• Curious, willing to learn, self-motivated, and hands-on.

## Preferred Qualifications

• Ph.D. student at a top-tier university in the United States.
• Prior internship or work experience in machine learning.

## Skills & Competencies

• Machine learning and AI
• Python programming
• C++ programming
• Algorithm development
• Problem-solving
• Communication
• Curiosity and continuous learning
• Self-motivation
• Hands-on approach
• Natural language processing
• Search relevance and ranking
• Personalization and recommendation systems
• Generative AI and LLMs
• Knowledge graphs
• Causal inference
• Optimization
• Computer vision

## Education & Experience

**Education**

• Ph.D. student in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, or a related area.

**Experience**

• Prior machine learning internship or work experience is preferred but not required.

## Work Arrangement & Schedule

• **Location:** Jersey City, NJ, US
• **Work Arrangement:** Remote
• **Employment Type:** Ph.D. Internship
• **Work Model:** Instacart operates as a Flex First team, allowing employees flexibility to choose where they do their best work, including from home, an office, or another preferred work location, while maintaining connection through regular in-person events.
• **Schedule:** Not specified in the source job description.

## Compensation & Benefits

Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where its employees work.

For this remote role, the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Offers may vary based on factors such as candidate experience and the skills required for the role.

## Compliance / Additional Information

Instacart is focused on making grocery delivery convenient, affordable, and accessible, serving customers across the US and Canada. Its machine learning teams use Internet-scale data across areas including e-commerce, advertising, fulfillment, search, recommendations, personalization, pricing, and catalog intelligence.

This is a general internship posting covering multiple machine learning teams, including Economics, Search & Discovery ML, and Content AI.

Instacart's Flex First remote work policy applies to this role.