Research Intern (AI​/LLM Network) - 2026 Start (PhD

Research Intern (AI/LLM Network) - 2026 Start (PhD)

Location:

Seattle

Team:
Technology

Employment Type:

Intern

Job Code: A221629

Team Introduction Byte Dance Networking brings together innovative ideas and technologies from network architecture, software defined networking (SDN), network virtualization, switch software and hardware co-design, and high-speed networking, to create hyperscale data-center networking solutions that power several of the most popular apps of the world such as Douyin and Tik Tok which serve hundreds of millions of users around the globe.

Byte Dance Networking is responsible for designing, building, and operating the global, intelligent network infrastructure to meet the requirements of high availability, scalability, and high-performance. By joining this team, you will gain marketable software development and/or network operation experience in data center networking at massive scale. We are looking for talented individuals to join us for an internship in 2026.

Internships at Byte Dance aim to offer students industry exposure and hands-on experience. Turn your ambitions into reality as your inspiration brings infinite opportunities  internships at Byte Dance provide students with the opportunity to actively contribute to our products and research, and to the organization's future plans and emerging technologies. Our dynamic internship experience blends hands-on learning, enriching community-building and development events, and collaboration with industry experts.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis - we encourage you to apply early. Please state your availability clearly in your resume (Start date, End date).

Responsibilities:

• Design, implementation and deployment of high-speed network technologies to support AI/LLM applications.
• Design and development of platforms/systems for monitoring, analysis and diagnosis of large scale AI/LLM network.
• Research and development of high-performance AI communication framework, network protocol stacks, and codesign optimization of host-network-application to improve the scalability, reliability and performance of AI/LLM network.
• Follow the latest technologies from academia and industry, identify the innovative parts of the system and present in academic papers.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Currently pursuing a PhD in computer networking or a related technical discipline.
• Experience with at least one of the following areas:
• Proficiency in computer network and network programming.
• Proficiency in one or several mainstream programming languages, including C/C++, Python, Go and so on.
• Be familiar with the latest advances in the area of high-speed network systems, including RDMA, congestion control, AI network optimization and so on.
• Experience in developing high performance communication frameworks(including NCCL, MPI and RPC libraries) is a plus.
• Experience in developing software systems for AI network diagnosis and performance optimization.
• Preferred Qualifications:
• Be familiar with AI training/inference systems and software-hardware co-design.
• Having top tier networking conference publications such as NSDI,SIGCOMM,OSDI,SOSP etc.

By submitting an application for this role, you accept and agree to our global applicant privacy policy, which may be accessed here:

For Pay Transparency Compensation Description (Hourly) - Campus Intern

The hourly rate range for this position in the selected city is $57- $57.

Benefits may vary depending on the nature of employment and the country work location. Interns have day one access to health insurance, life insurance, wellbeing benefits and more. Interns also receive 10 paid holidays per year and paid sick time (56 hours if hired in first half of year, 40 if hired in second half of year). Interns who are not working 100% remote may also be eligible for housing allowance.

The Company reserves the right to modify or change these benefits programs at any time, with or without notice.

For Los Angeles County (unincorporated) Candidates:

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Our company believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship on the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of the conditional offer of employment:

• Interacting and occasionally having unsupervised contact with internal/external clients and/or colleagues;
• Appropriately handling and managing confidential information including proprietary and trade secret information and access to information technology systems; and
• Exercising sound judgment.

Founded in 2012, Byte Dance's mission is to inspire creativity and enrich life. With a suite of more than a dozen products, including Tik Tok, Lemon8, Cap Cut and Pico as well as platforms specific to the China market,…