{"id":3909597,"url":"https://alion.io/job/category-research-intern-summer-2027","title":"Research Intern, Summer 2027","company":{"id":39660,"name":"Category","domain":"category.xyz","url":"https://alion.io/company/category","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Early Careers","role_family":"Early Careers","seniority":"intern","employment_type":"internship","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["New York, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":4500,"max":null,"currency":"USD","period":"week","gross":null,"usd_annual":234000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Ethereum","optional":false},{"name":"GitHub","optional":false},{"name":"Monad","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-07T02:39:51Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-07","last_verified_at":"2026-11-10T09:01:35Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":3,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":3},"description":"Category Labs (formerly known as Monad Labs) is a team of systems engineers and researchers on a mission to design and build at the frontier of decentralized technology. We strive to deliver significant improvements over existing blockchain solutions. After raising $225M in Series A funding, led by Paradigm, we are growing our team.\nWe’re the team behind Monad, a high-performance, EVM-compatible Layer 1. We write the core software that runs it: a parallel-execution EVM, a custom state database, and a BFT consensus client, all developed in the open.\nThe Role\nWe’re hiring Summer Research Interns to pursue advanced research in mechanism design, cryptoeconomics, distributed systems, programming languages, cryptography, and governance. This list isn’t exhaustive; if you bring a valuable and relevant perspective, we encourage you to apply.\n\nThis internship offers a rare chance to work at the frontier of decentralized systems: advancing the underlying science and technology while delivering real impact at scale.\n\nResearch projects will draw on the challenges of building a first-of-its-kind blockchain, as well as new directions that decentralized systems make possible. You’re also welcome to propose your own projects.\n\nYou’ll learn from Category Labs’ researchers, engineers, and fellow interns, while contributing as an independent and equal peer.\n\nDepending on your availability and the needs of the project, the internship can be extended into part-time employment and may lead to future collaborations.\n\nWhat You’ll Do\nConduct novel, rigorous research on the topics above.\n\nContribute to technical publications, including peer-reviewed papers, blog posts, and white papers.\n\nPartner with the engineering team to build prototypes, run simulations, and design experiments that test your models and assumptions.\n\nEngage with team members and visiting researchers to refine ideas and share insights from your own work.\n\nPast interns have shipped real work (small sample):\nA Private RPC for Public Blockchains: Introduced write-public ORAM, a new primitive for reading blockchain state without revealing what you read, and built an open-source private RPC that keeps up with Monad’s throughput.\n\nTiming Games in Responsive Consensus Protocols: Modeled why validators delay block proposals, and designed dynamic block rewards that make proposing promptly the winning strategy.\n\nOn the Geographic Incentives of Multiple Concurrent Proposers: Proved how proposers choose where to locate in multi-proposer systems, and when that leads to co-location versus geographic diversity.\n\nWho You Are\nYou’re currently enrolled in a PhD program in computer science, economics, mathematics, the social sciences, or a related field. Exceptional master’s and undergraduate students will also be considered.\n\nYou’re passionate about decentralized systems and have enough foundational knowledge to hit the ground running.\n\nYou communicate clearly and can explain complex ideas in simple terms, making research accessible to a broader audience.\n\nYou have a clear research vision and the drive to pursue innovative ideas aligned with Category Labs’ mission.\n\nYou’re collaborative, self-motivated, and adaptable, eager to tackle hard problems and pick up new concepts quickly in a fast-paced environment.\n\nWhy Work with Us\nChallenging problems: You’ll work on extremely challenging problems with massive impact. See ourBlogs and Publications & Talks for a flavor of the problems we are solving in the real world.\n\nHuge opportunity: The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) standard is ubiquitous, but existing EVM-compatible chains are very slow. Monad’s core innovations offer developers the best of both worlds (portability and performance) and are a game-changer for mass user adoption in crypto.\n\nThe right team: You’ll be part of a small, exceptional team (engineers and researchers make up 90% of the team).\n\nOpen by default: Our core software is public on GitHub.\n\nCulture: We’re a lean team working together to achieve very ambitious goals. We are united in our culture of collaboration, low ego, and high-quality output. As an early member of our team, you’ll help to shape our culture.\n\nCompensation: You’ll receive competitive pay, plus housing support.\n\nResources and growth: We’re well-capitalized, withbacking from leading venture funds like Paradigm, Electric Capital, Greenoaks, Dragonfly, and Coinbase Ventures. We keep a lean team, and this is a rare opportunity to join. You’ll learn a lot and grow as our company scales.\n\nHow We Use AI\nWe’re an AI-native team, and we expect researchers to use AI and adapt to the technology as it evolves. A few things we believe:\nAI is leverage, not a crutch. You must stand behind the correctness and quality of your work (including writing and presentation) even if it was produced with the help of AI.\n\nAs part of the research process, you must understand the output from AI before sharing it with your collaborators. Any output that you were not able to review must be marked as such.\n\nInternship Details\nThe internship runs roughly 12 weeks, between May 17 and August 30.\n\nResidency in New York City is strongly preferred but not required.\n\nThe anticipated rate for this role is $4,500 per week, plus a $500 per week housing stipend or corporate housing. Pay may vary based on experience and scope.\n\nApplication and timeline\nPlease include, in addition to the application below:\nResume/CV\n\nLetters of recommendation (1-2 letters, optional but recommended).\nRecommenders should email their letters of support to  with the \"[name of the applicant], Research Intern 2027\" in the subject line.\n\nFor full consideration, please submit applications by December 7, 2026.\n\nVisa & Work Authorization\nWe welcome international applicants and will consider visa and work authorization support on a case-by-case basis. Please note your current status and location in your application so we can discuss options early.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5968,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Blockchain & Crypto","Hedge Funds & Alternative Investments","Online Brokerage & Trading Platforms"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-07T05:46:55Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 2","filings_12m":2,"filings_prev_12m":4,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":252500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-10T11:34:35+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":3,"expected_fill_days":27,"reasons":["conf:3","win:early","comp:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-11-10T06:52:35Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":234000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/category-research-intern-summer-2027","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/category-research-intern-summer-2027.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-10T11:45:44Z","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":27357,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-11T00:00:00Z"}},"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":39660},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=39660"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcategory-research-intern-summer-2027"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"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%2Fcategory-research-intern-summer-2027"},{"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%2Fcategory-research-intern-summer-2027"},{"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/category-research-intern-summer-2027\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcategory-research-intern-summer-2027"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3909597}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"category.xyz","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3909597},"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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