PhD Research Intern in Physical AI, Perception and Vision-Language Modeling Zoox in United States

Zoox is hiring a PhD Research Intern, Physical AI in Perception for its Perception Semantics team in Foster City, California. This is a research internship focused on computer science, electrical/computer engineering, robotics, and advanced AI for autonomous vehicles.

The role centers on cutting-edge problems in vision-language-action (VLA) modeling, world modeling, spatial reasoning, mapping, multi-modal modeling, vision foundation models, temporal modeling, and reinforcement learning. Interns will contribute to both research and real-world deployment on autonomous vehicle systems, making this a strong fit for candidates interested in physical AI, perception, and robotics.

Eligibility highlights: applicants must be actively enrolled in a PhD program in CS, ECE, or a related field; have strong proficiency in PyTorch and transformer-based architectures; and be able to commit to a 12-week onsite internship during Summer 2026. The posting also prefers candidates with prior industry internship/co-op/project experience, good academic standing, and publication records in top AI venues such as CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, NeurIPS, ICLR, or ICML.

Funding and benefits: the internship is listed at $9,500/month, with medical insurance, a housing stipend, and possible relocation assistance depending on eligibility.

Application: apply via the employer link provided in the post. The role is onsite in the Bay Area, with Summer 2026 cohort windows mentioned in the source listing.