Company Description Dropbox is a special place where we are all seeking to fulfill our mission to design a more enlightened way of working. We’re looking for innovative talent to join us on our journey. The words shared by our founders at the start of Dropbox still ring true today. Wouldn’t it be great if our working environment—and the tools we use—were designed with people’s actual needs in mind? Imagine if every minute at work were well spent—if we could focus and spend our time on the things that matter. This is possible, and Dropbox is connecting the dots. The nearly 3,000 Dropboxers around the world have helped make Dropbox a living workspace - the place where people come together and their ideas come to life. Our 700+ million global users have been some of our best salespeople, and they have helped us acquire customers with incredible efficiency. As a result, we reached a billion dollar revenue run rate faster than any software-as-a-service company in history. Dropbox is making the dream of a fulfilling and seamless work life a reality. We hope you’ll join us on the journey. Team Description Over the years at Dropbox, Emerging Talent has created a variety of internships, apprenticeships, and early-in-career full time opportunities to build pathways for exceptional early career professionals to succeed at Dropbox. Supported by a community of mentors, program graduates, and fellow participants, our Emerging Talent programs are the perfect place to start your career in tech. Role Description At Dropbox, interns don’t just watch from the sidelines—they’re integral members of the team. As a PhD Machine Learning intern, you’ll partner with world-class engineers and researchers in our New Initiatives organization, where you’ll tackle cutting-edge challenges at the intersection of frontier AI research and real-world application. Throughout your internship, you’ll receive mentorship, collaborate on impactful projects, and help shape the future of Dropbox’s AI strategy. Within Dropbox, New Initiatives is all about innovation and exploration. Our group builds and experiments with next-generation AI-driven products—from advanced large language models and generative AI prototypes to brand-new user experiences that blend research breakthroughs with Dropbox’s core mission. If you thrive on exploring uncharted territory and rapidly iterating on new ideas, you’ll feel right at home here. High-Impact Work: You won’t just be observing; you’ll be contributing to AI initiatives that could shape the next phase of Dropbox’s products.Learn from Experts: Collaborate with a diverse team of engineers, product managers, and researchers who have deep expertise in both ML and large-scale software systems.Innovative Culture: Push the boundaries of what AI can do. Dropbox fosters experimentation and creative problem-solving—especially in New Initiatives.Mentorship & Growth: Every intern is paired with a dedicated mentor to help guide projects, provide feedback, and ensure a meaningful learning experience.Community & Connection: Join an intern cohort, participate in social and professional development events, and build your network for the future. Responsibilities Explore & Prototype: Investigate cutting-edge research in areas like knowledge distillation, agentic AI, and multilingual LLMs, translating conceptual ideas into working demos or internal proofs of concept.Applied AI Research: Work on real-world challenges—e.g., how to efficiently summarize large collections of documents, build agentic workflows, or orchestrate advanced reasoning models—and apply novel techniques to solve them.Collaborate & Iterate: Partner closely with product managers, designers, and other engineers to brainstorm innovative applications, gather feedback, and iterate on prototypes.Experiment & Evaluate: Design experiments to test your hypotheses, evaluate AI model performance, and analyze user impact. You’ll move quickly, learning what works and discarding what doesn’t.Champion New Ideas: Help identify emerging trends in AI that could benefit Dropbox users, providing technical insight and feasibility assessments for future product initiatives. Requirements PhD Student in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a closely related field, with a research focus on advanced AI (e.g., NLP, multimodal learning, LLMs, or similar).Graduation date in Spring 2026Proven experience in applied AI, through research publications, significant projects, or internships where you built or tested advanced ML solutions.Strong coding skills (e.g., Python), plus an ability to quickly prototype and iterate on cutting-edge ideas.Curiosity and drive to explore novel ML methodologies and translate them into practical applications that solve user needs. Preferred Qualifications Research background or publications in top-tier AI/ML conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR).Hands-on experience working with large language models, generative AI, or reinforcement learning.Familiarity with the end-to-end process of building AI prototypes: from data exploration and model iteration to evaluation and user testing.Passion for swiftly moving from idea to experiment, comfortable with ambiguous or evolving project goals. We welcome candidates who are enthusiastic about pushing the frontiers of AI and applying research to real-world Dropbox challenges. If this sounds like you, we encourage you to apply—help us shape the future of work and collaboration through groundbreaking AI innovations. Compensation US Pay Range$11,000—$12,000 USD The rate listed above is the expected monthly rate for this role, subject to change. Dropbox is a Virtual First company and is open to hiring candidates in all authorized locations. BenefitsDropbox is committed to investing in the holistic health and wellbeing of all Dropboxers and their families. Our benefits and perks programs include: Competitive medical, dental and vision coverage Flexible Time Off/Paid Time Off, paid holidays, Company-wide PTO days, Volunteer time off Perks Allowance to be used on what matters most to you, whether that’s productivity, learning & development, wellness, co-working space Additional benefits details are available upon request. Dropbox is an equal opportunity employer. We are a welcoming place for everyone, and we do our best to make sure all people feel supported and connected at work. A big part of that effort is our support for members and allies of internal groups like Asians at Dropbox, BlackDropboxers, enABLE, TODOS (Latinx), Pridebox (LGBTQ), Vets at Dropbox, and Women at Dropbox.