Machine Learning Researcher Fellowship

Intercom is the AI Customer Service company on a mission to help businesses provide incredible customer experiences.

Our AI agent Fin, the most advanced customer service AI agent on the market, lets businesses deliver always-on, impeccable customer service and ultimately transform their customer experiences for the better. Fin can also be combined with our Helpdesk to become a complete solution called the Intercom Customer Service Suite, which provides AI enhanced support for the more complex or high touch queries that require a human agent.

Founded in 2011 and trusted by nearly 30,000 global businesses, Intercom is setting the new standard for customer service. Driven by our core values, we push boundaries, build with speed and intensity, and consistently deliver incredible value to our customers.

About Intercom:

At Intercom, we are building the leading AI for customer service. As we continue to push the boundaries of what's possible, we are offering a 6-month Machine Learning Research Fellowship to individuals passionate about joining or advancing the field of AI, and applying cutting-edge research to real-world applications.

What's the opportunity?

This fellowship provides a unique opportunity for high potential individuals to conduct or begin work on AI research.

Applicants will generally be a PhD student, postdoctoral researcher, or industry professional passionate about working on cutting-edge AI research projects. We are open to high potential individuals who are attempting to transfer into AI from other disciplines - e.g. candidates with relevant mathematical or technical skills but without much experience in AI.

Fellows will work towards building and improving their understanding of modern AI through project work, on risky and uncertain AI projects.

You may also contribute to the broader AI research community through publications and presentations.

What will I be doing?

• Conduct advanced research in Natural Language Processing (NLP), deep learning, reinforcement learning, and recommendation systems relevant to customer service and communication.
• Develop and prototype machine learning models that enhance AI-driven customer interactions.
• Contribute to academic research through publications in top-tier conferences and journals.
• Explore emerging AI research areas and develop long-term strategies to advance the use of AI in customer service.
• Participate in external collaborations with researchers, universities, and technical institutions.

Potential Projects

• Replicate the work of Deepseek r1-zero to attempt to use reinforcement learning to train models for better instruction following
• Follow and build on the work of Anthropic on Scaling Monosemanticity to attempt to learn how to steer and control models
• Follow and build on the work of the Llama3 paper to investigate training new Capabilities into existing open source models
• Experiment with altering model personality in a way that could be useful in Customer Support
• Investigate fine-tuning smaller models with SFT to use for specific use cases
• Create benchmarks for agents that need to take actions reliably

Who You Are:

• Typically currently pursuing or have completed a PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, AI, or a related field, or possess equivalent industry research experience.
• We will also consider applicants from other quantitative fields, such as physics, maths, statistics etc with relevant experience.
• Or those who can otherwise demonstrate outlier technical or quantitative talent.

What skills do I need?

• Experience bridging academic research and industry applications.
• Previous contributions to open-source AI research.
• Strong background in deep learning, reinforcement learning, NLP, or unsupervised learning.
• Hands-on experience with machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or JAX.
• Proficient in Python and familiar with data processing techniques for large-scale datasets.
• A strong research publication record in machine learning, AI, or NLP (NeurIPS, ICML, ACL, etc.).
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey complex research to technical and non-technical audiences.

Why Join Intercom's Fellowship Program?

• Work on high-impact projects that shape the future of AI in customer service.
• Gain hands-on industry experience while maintaining strong research connections.
• Collaborate with a diverse and talented team of ML engineers, researchers, and product teams.
• Access mentorship from senior AI/ML experts.
• Flexible working environment with the potential to publish and showcase research.

Application Process

To apply, please submit the following:

• CV highlighting your research experience and relevant publications.
• Cover letter outlining your research interests, motivation for applying, and how your skills align with the goals of the fellowship.
• A brief research proposal (optional but encouraged) that describes your vision for the future of AI in customer service and outlines the specific research questions you would pursue during your fellowship.

Intercom has a hybrid working policy. We believe that working in person helps us stay connected, collaborate easier and create a great culture while still providing flexibility to work from home. We expect employees to be in the office at least two days per week.

We have a radically open and accepting culture at Intercom. We avoid spending time on divisive subjects to foster a safe and cohesive work environment for everyone. As an organization, our policy is to not advocate on behalf of the company or our employees on any social or political topics out of our internal or external communications. We respect personal opinion and expression on these topics on personal social platforms on personal time, and do not challenge or confront anyone for their views on non-work related topics. Our goal is to focus on doing incredible work to achieve our goals and unite the company through our core values .

Intercom values diversity and is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity. Intercom will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, age, physical or mental disability, veteran or military status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law.

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