{"id":2792363,"url":"https://alion.io/job/smule-internship-foundational-research-scientist","title":"Internship - Foundational Research Scientist","company":{"id":171926,"name":"Smule","domain":"smule.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/smule","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":null,"truth_index":null},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"intern","employment_type":"internship","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"inferred_company_offices","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"inferred","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-17T17:44:32Z","employer_posted_date":null,"last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T17:44:32Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"Smule has been on a mission to bring the world together through music since 2008. Music is much more than listening… it's about creating, sharing, discovering, participating, and connecting with people. With dozens of millions of monthly active users creating over 20 million songs every day, Smule is connecting people all over the world through the joy of making music and transforming the music landscape from one of passive listening to collaborative creative expression and active engagement.\nAbout the Role:We are looking for a Research Scientist to join Smule's Foundational Research team. In this role you will pursue long-horizon research questions that advance the state of the art in sequence modeling, generative modeling, and representation learning, with a particular focus on architectures and methods relevant to audio and music. You will design and execute rigorous experiments, publish at top venues, and contribute novel ideas that shape the direction of Smule's research agenda. The ideal candidate is deeply curious, comfortable with open-ended exploration, and motivated by scientific contribution.\nWe strongly encourage candidates with non-traditional ML backgrounds to apply. If your path into machine learning research came through physics, mathematics, signal processing, music technology, neuroscience, or another field, we want to hear from you.\nWhat You'll Be Doing:\nIdentify, scope, and lead independent research projects that push the boundaries of current understanding in areas such as efficient sequence modeling, generative audio, representation learning, and optimization.\n\nDesign experiments with rigorous controls, ablation studies, and statistical analysis to validate hypotheses.\n\nPublish findings at top-tier venues (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, Interspeech, ISMIR, or equivalent) and contribute to the broader research community through open-source artifacts and talks.\n\nCollaborate with applied research and engineering teams to translate foundational insights into practical improvements for Smule's products.\n\nStay current with the latest literature, synthesize relevant work, and identify high-leverage research directions for the team.\n\nMentor junior researchers and interns, fostering a culture of intellectual rigor and creative exploration.\n\nWhat We're Looking For:\nDegree (B.S., M.S., or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or currently pursuing one.\n\nStrong publication record at top ML/AI venues demonstrating original contributions.\n\nDeep expertise in at least one core area: sequence modeling, generative models, optimization, probabilistic methods, or representation learning.\n\nProficiency in Python and modern deep learning frameworks (PyTorch preferred).\n\nExcellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to present complex ideas clearly to diverse audiences.\n\nDemonstrated ability to independently scope, execute, and communicate a research project from idea to publication.\n\nBonus Points For:\nExperience with audio, speech, or music signal processing and modeling.\n\nFamiliarity with linear attention mechanisms, state-space models, or efficient transformer variants.\n\nExperience with large-scale distributed training and high-performance computing.\n\nTrack record of successful cross-functional collaboration with engineering teams.\n\nSmule is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law.\nWe are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please let us know.\nOriginally posted on Himalayas","description_format":"text","description_chars":3970,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-17T20:28:15Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 2","filings_12m":2,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":162500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":2}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":29,"reasons":["seen:1","win:early","comp:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/smule-internship-foundational-research-scientist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/smule-internship-foundational-research-scientist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-19T09:31:57Z","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":6692,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-20T00:00:00Z"}},"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":171926},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=171926"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fsmule-internship-foundational-research-scientist"},{"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%2Fsmule-internship-foundational-research-scientist"},{"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%2Fsmule-internship-foundational-research-scientist"},{"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/smule-internship-foundational-research-scientist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fsmule-internship-foundational-research-scientist"}]}