Summer 2027 | Software Engineer Intern (ML Research, Core Technology)

Nex is on a mission to help families rediscover the joy of movement. Created by parents for parents, Nex combines technology and play to deliver fun, social, and interactive experiences powered by natural body motion, encouraging kids and adults to move more, play more, and have fun together. Nex Playground, the company’s award-winning active play system, is purpose-built to get families moving year-round, with safety and privacy as core considerations in its intentional design. It is certified kidSAFE+ COPPA compliant and built to support healthy, active play for all ages and abilities.

Nex Playground features a growing library of 50+ experiences, including motion and dance games, fitness and educational experiences, and Nex Originals. Content includes collaborations with partners like Hasbro, Sesame Workshop, and NBCUniversal. Nex has been recognized by Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, TIME’s Best Inventions, and Parents’ Best Entertainment System for Families, and has earned Red Dot, IDEA, and Core77 international design awards. We encourage you to explore Have Fun  and Is Motion Gaming Back?, as they offer a deeper look into our culture, values, and explain how our approach to motion gaming differs from previous generations.

To protect yourself from recruitment scams, please note that Nex communicates through official company emails ending in @nex.inc. If you receive a suspicious email or message, please do not respond and report it immediately to us.

Location: Hong Kong

Type: Full Time Internship (June 1, 2027 - August 31, 2027)

The Role

The Core Technology team develops the technologies that allow Nex Playground to use cameras, microphones, and other sensors to understand player movement and interactions in real time.

As our Software Engineer Intern (ML Research, Core Technology), you will explore and develop machine learning methods that expand what Nex Playground can perceive and understand. You may work on computer vision, audio, sensor fusion, or other sensing problems, taking ideas from research hypotheses through experimentation, evaluation, optimization, and working prototypes.

You will collaborate with ML researchers and software engineers to build datasets and experimental workflows, evaluate ideas rigorously, and demonstrate promising technologies under real-world and on-device constraints. You will receive hands-on mentorship while owning a meaningful research project that contributes to our future products and technical direction.

What You Will Do

• Develop and evaluate ML models and algorithms for computational perception and interaction.
• Design rigorous experiments, improve datasets, compare approaches, and understand failure modes.
• Build training and evaluation tools, and optimize promising models for real-time, on-device inference.
• Collaborate with researchers and engineers to prototype technologies on Nex Playground and communicate your findings.

Should Have

• Must be currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree program at an accredited college or university.
• Strong interest in machine learning and enthusiasm for learning new methods and tools.
• Solid mathematical fundamentals and comfort with quantitative reasoning.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Programming experience in any language.
• A curious, systematic approach to learning through experimentation.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.

Nice To Have

• Experience with Python or familiarity with PyTorch, TensorFlow, or another ML framework.
• Interested in computer vision, audio processing, sensor fusion, or multimodal learning.
• Interested in model optimization, on-device inference, GPUs, NPUs, or resource-constrained devices.
• Interested in data curation workflows, or dataset quality analysis.
• Enthusiastic about games, interactive physical experiences, and helping people be active and healthy.

We Offer

• Competitive compensation package.
• Flexible working hours and vacation policy.
• Product-driven culture that treasures talents and individual growth.
• Front-row seat and hands-on experience with cutting edge technologies in the evolving gaming field

Nex is located in San Jose, California, USA  and Hong Kong. Learn more about us at https://www.nexplayground.com/about. 

We encourage applications even if you don’t meet more than 50% of the requirements - we believe that experience comes in many forms!

Nex is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. This policy applies to all individuals at every stage of the employment relationship, including all current and prospective employees, and covers all employment decisions including recruitment, hiring, job assignment, promotion, compensation, benefits, training, discipline and termination.

We are committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment and to fostering an inclusive environment for all employees.