{"id":4213313,"url":"https://alion.io/job/atalanta-software-understanding-researcher-phd-internship","title":"Software Understanding Researcher (PhD Internship)","company":{"id":2253843,"name":"Atalanta","domain":"atalanta.tech","url":"https://alion.io/company/atalanta-tech","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"intern","employment_type":"internship","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Washington, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":180000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":180000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Reinforcement Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2025-11-18T19:16:10Z","employer_posted_date":"2025-11-18","last_verified_at":"2026-11-13T01:50:39Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":359,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":359},"description":"/ ABOUT ATALANTA\nAtalanta is a mathematical AI company bringing provably correct decision-making to the world’s most important missions.\nOur flagship product, Argo, is the first platform in a new category called software understanding. Argo combines AI, formal methods, and digital engineering to help organizations design, implement, and deploy complex software-controlled systems with mathematical assurance at mission speed.\nBacked by leading investors, Atalanta works with customers building and deploying mission-critical systems across energy, space, and defense. Our goal is to help engineers and mission owners move faster while maintaining the highest possible level of assurance, ultimately saving time, money, and lives.\n/ HOW WE WORK\nAtalanta takes its name from the mythological Greek heroine, a swift and fearless competitor who defied expectations and joined the Argonauts on a mission few thought possible. Her spirit of speed, discipline, and resilience shapes how we work.\nWe’re building a team of modern-day Argonauts: exceptional engineers, mathematicians, designers, and strategists committed to solving the hardest, highest-stakes problems in the world. We move fast, but we do so with discipline and logic. We think from first principles and execute with autonomy and accountability.\nYou may be a good fit for Atalanta if you are insatiably curious in the face of discomfort, are a coalition builder who sees progress as a positive-sum game, and believe that the alchemy of interdisciplinary expertise can solve seemingly impossible problems.\n/ RESEARCH AT ATALANTA\nSoftware understanding is a constantly evolving discipline, and maintaining leadership in this category requires continuously advancing both how the problem is defined and how the solution is built. Atalanta’s research function exists to stay ahead of this curve, grounded in what is learned from real missions and real deployments. This work spans disciplines, combining political science to understand the rapidly changing geopolitical landscape and emerging threat models, with computer science to push the technical frontier across AI, mathematics, and cybersecurity. Research is pursued through both internal efforts and partnerships with leading universities and research institutions, ensuring a constant exchange between frontier ideas and operational reality. This work is exploratory, but never abstract, shaped by the belief that research should directly inform what is built and deployed. Success means that Atalanta not only leads the software understanding category today, but continues to define what it becomes tomorrow.\n/ ABOUT THE ROLE\nAs a Software Understanding Researcher at Atalanta, you will help advance the frontier of AI-driven reasoning and verification for complex systems. Your work will focus on combining machine learning with formal methods to build systems that can reason about, verify, and guarantee behavior in real-world environments.\nIn this role, you will:\nConduct research at the intersection of machine learning, automated reasoning, and formal verification, with a focus on building AI systems that can reason about code and system behavior.\n\nDevelop novel approaches for integrating large language models with symbolic reasoning, program analysis, program synthesis, or theorem proving.\n\nDesign and implement algorithms for specification, verification, and synthesis of complex systems under real-world constraints.\n\nPrototype and evaluate new techniques on real systems, and work with engineers to integrate them into Argo.\n\nAdvance the state of the art in scalable reasoning systems that improve reliability, security, and correctness in deployed software.\n\n/ REQUIREMENTS\nWe are looking for:\nCurrent PhD student in computer science, mathematics, electrical engineering, or a related technical field.\n\nStrong background in machine learning, AI, or automated reasoning, with experience in areas such as LLMs, reinforcement learning, formal verification, or program analysis.\n\nExperience designing and implementing novel algorithms or models, with evidence of research contributions or publications.\n\nFamiliarity with programming languages and systems relevant to reasoning and verification (e.g., Python, Rust, C++, or theorem proving environments).\n\nAbility to bridge theory and practice, translating research ideas into working prototypes.\n\nStrong technical communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex ideas and collaborate across engineering teams.\n\nEligibility for a TS/SCI security clearance (U.S. citizenship required.)\n\n/ COMPENSATION & BENEFITS\nThe salary for this position is estimated to be $150,000 - $180,000 per year, prorated for the duration of the internship.\nOther benefits include:\nGenerous paid time off.\n\nWeekly meals and other on-site amenities at Atalanta HQ.\n\nEqual Opportunity\nAtalanta is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse team aligned by mission, technical expertise, and impact.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4990,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-13T01:50:39Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1","filings_12m":1,"filings_prev_12m":1,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":82500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-12T07:36:15+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":3,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.109,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":359,"expected_fill_days":27,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail","crowd:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-11-13T03:36:49Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":180000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/atalanta-software-understanding-researcher-phd-internship","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/atalanta-software-understanding-researcher-phd-internship.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-13T03:36:49Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":7612,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-14T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2253843},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2253843"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fatalanta-software-understanding-researcher-phd-internship"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"free","price":{"credits":0,"usd":0},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fatalanta-software-understanding-researcher-phd-internship"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fatalanta-software-understanding-researcher-phd-internship"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/atalanta-software-understanding-researcher-phd-internship\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fatalanta-software-understanding-researcher-phd-internship"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4213313}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"atalanta.tech","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4213313},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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