{"id":2471086,"url":"https://alion.io/job/figma-phd-intern-software-engineer-graphics-2027","title":"PhD Intern, Software Engineer - Graphics (2027)","company":{"id":2804,"name":"Figma","domain":"figma.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/figma","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":72,"open_postings":42,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.929,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":71,"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"intern","employment_type":"internship","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"ChatGPT","optional":false},{"name":"Claude","optional":false},{"name":"Copilot","optional":false},{"name":"Figma","optional":false},{"name":"GLSL","optional":false},{"name":"OpenGL","optional":false},{"name":"Rust","optional":false},{"name":"WebAssembly","optional":false},{"name":"WebGPU","optional":false},{"name":"WGSL","optional":false},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-13T16:17:57Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-13","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T08:56:29Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Figma is growing our team of passionate creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all. Figma’s platform helps teams bring ideas to life-whether you're brainstorming, creating a prototype, translating designs into code, or iterating with AI. From idea to product, Figma empowers teams to streamline workflows, move faster, and work together in real time from anywhere in the world. If you're excited to shape the future of design and collaboration, join us!\nThe Rendering & Animation team (R&A) builds the graphics engine which renders the canvas for all Figma applications. Our mission is to make rendering performant, feature-rich, reliable, maintainable and extendible across all products & surfaces. The team plays a core, bedrock role for the company because it underpins the technology driving the user experience, touching many other teams, and as such is one of the most impactful areas of Figma.\nThe R&A team is devoted to hiring individuals with graphics expertise. We are interested in a variety of sub-domains, including 2D GPU-driven rendering, computational geometry & vector graphics, animation frameworks, anti-aliasing algorithms, shader effects, and more recently branching into video/image processing. A PhD Intern specializing in any of these areas would be a phenomenal fit for the team with a lot of exciting projects available.\nAs an intern on our team, you'll take ownership of a high-impact project at the intersection of your technical strengths and our most pressing graphics, rendering, or media challenges. You'll work closely with your intern manager, team leads, and collaborators across 1-2 partner teams to deliver tangible results within your internship. This is an opportunity to do significant, portfolio-worthy work that directly supplies Figma's visual platform.\nThis is a 12 or 16-week internship role that can be held from one of our US hubs (San Francisco or New York) starting in May or June of 2027.\nWhat you'll do at Figma:\nLearn from industry graphics engineers and participate as an embedded team member of the Rendering & Animation team\nCollaborate with engineers, PMs, designers, and researchers to scope and execute your work\nDevelop, validate, and document solutions from prototypes to production-ready systems\nDrive projects that apply research insights to meaningful product challenges\nContribute to exciting domain areas; some examples: crafting and optimizing shaders for sophisticated effects, investigating improvements to anti-aliasing algorithms, improving media processing capabilities, animating spline interpolation, and more!\nWe'd love to hear from you if you have:\nCurrent enrollment as a 4th or 5th year senior PhD student pursuing a PhD in Computer Graphics, Media Processing, or a related field\nExperience working with OpenGL, WebGL, WebGPU, Vulkan or Metal and their respective shader languages (GLSL, WGSL) or other low-level graphics APIs\nProficiency in either C++ or Rust\nA track record of rigorous problem-solving through academic or applied research, with experience thinking holistically about use cases and the low-level technology required\nWhile it's not required, it's an added plus if you also have:\nDemonstrated expertise in computer graphics, supported by publications at conferences such as SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, High Performance Graphics, NVIDIA GTC, or Pacific Graphics\nProficiency in WebAssembly, web graphics, 2D graphics, performance optimization, animation, geometry, or media\nInterest in art and design applications\nExperience using AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to write, debug, and optimize code\nRelated industry experience via a past internship or full-time role\nStrong communication and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated experience collaborating across functions\nAt Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.\nPay Transparency Disclosure\nThis internship role is based in either Figma’s San Francisco or New York hub offices, and has the hourly base pay rate stated below. Figma also offers interns a housing stipend and travel reimbursement. Figma’s compensation and benefits are subject to change and may be modified in the future.\nInternship\n$74—$74 USD\nAt Figma we celebrate and support our differences. We know employing a team rich in diverse thoughts, experiences, and opinions allows our employees, our product and our community to flourish. Figma is an equal opportunity workplace - we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity/expression, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.\nWe will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to apply for a role, participate in the interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you require accommodation, please reach out to . These modifications enable an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity not only to get a job, but successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities. \nExamples of accommodations include but are not limited to: \nHolding interviews in an accessible location\nEnabling closed captioning on video conferencing\nEnsuring all written communication be compatible with screen readers\nChanging the mode or format of interviews \nTo ensure the integrity of our hiring process and facilitate a more personal connection, we require all candidates keep their cameras on during video interviews. Additionally, if hired you will be required to attend in person onboarding.\nBy applying for this job, the candidate acknowledges and agrees that any personal data contained in their application or supporting materials will be processed in accordance with Figma's Candidate Privacy Notice.\nApplication limits: To help candidates focus on the opportunities most relevant to their skills and experience, Figma limits the number and frequency of applications. These limits apply to all roles:\nCandidates may submit up to 5 applications during any rolling 30-day period.\nCandidates may not reapply to the same role while an application is active or within 90 days of receiving a rejection.\nOnce the applicable days has passed, candidates are welcome to apply again.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6849,"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":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Digital Design","Design & Prototyping Tools"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-13T19:50:50Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 76 · green card filings: 15","filings_12m":76,"filings_prev_12m":49,"green_card_filings_12m":15,"median_offered_wage_usd":205027,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-03T21:08:04+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":42}],"liveness":{"score":60,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.602,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":71,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","win:early","comp:junior,brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-14T06:34:16Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/figma-phd-intern-software-engineer-graphics-2027","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/figma-phd-intern-software-engineer-graphics-2027.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T09:05:08Z","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":10009,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"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":2804},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2804"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ffigma-phd-intern-software-engineer-graphics-2027"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"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%2Ffigma-phd-intern-software-engineer-graphics-2027"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"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%2Ffigma-phd-intern-software-engineer-graphics-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/figma-phd-intern-software-engineer-graphics-2027\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ffigma-phd-intern-software-engineer-graphics-2027"}]}