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VisaStaff Research Scientist, Intern - PhD Foundational AI
AI in this role
Conduct foundational AI and generative AI research focusing on LLMs, embeddings, and model adaptation for enterprise-scale financial systems.
About Us
Visa is a world leader in payments technology, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories, dedicated to uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.
At Visa, you'll have the opportunity to create impact at scale — tackling meaningful challenges, growing your skills and seeing your contributions impact lives around the world.
Join Visa and do work that matters – to you, to your community, and to the world. Progress starts with you.
Job Description
Visa’s Internship Program offers a 12-week immersive experience where you’ll work on impactful projects that advance Visa’s mission. As a Visa intern, you’ll build meaningful connections, strengthen your communication and business skills, and gain hands-on experience in a dynamic, global environment.
You’ll have access to interactive workshops and learning sessions designed to build expertise, expand industry knowledge, and elevate your professional skills. You’ll not only learn, you’ll contribute, collaborate, and innovate. Beyond professional development, enjoy social events that foster community and connection.
The program culminates in a final presentation, where you’ll share your project achievements and recommendations with Visa leaders—a chance to demonstrate impact and growth.
Our Team
Visa Research expands Visa’s technology research capabilities globally, conducting both applied and fundamental research. We partner closely with technology, product teams, academics, and governments to explore and develop technologies critical to the future of payments.Artificial Intelligence
The GenAI Research team drives purpose-driven research to advance the next generation of AI for secure, intelligent, and scalable commerce. Our work spans:- Foundational AI: large language models, representation learning, embeddings, adaptive model training, and methods to advance fraud detection, risk modeling, personalization, and commerce intelligence.
Job Duties
- Conduct generative AI and LLM research focusing on scalable methods, model adaptation, evaluation, and applied use cases.
- Design, implement, and evaluate AI algorithms for enterprise-scale systems.
- Develop proof-of-concept prototypes to transition research into innovative products.
- Optimize workflows for model training, inference, and data pipelines.
- Prepare technical publications, reports, and intellectual property submissions.
- Collaborate with engineering, product, and cross-functional partners to deliver impactful AI solutions.
All Visa roles require digital fluency, including the ability to work with emerging technologies such as Generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot) to support everyday work. Visa requires at least 3 days in office, expectations of these days will be confirmed by your Hiring Manager.
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications
- Students pursuing a Ph.D. with a graduation date in December 2027 or later
Preferred Qualifications
- Strong research record demonstrated by publications, patents, presentations, or technical contributions.
- Experience in Generative AI, LLMs, deep learning, scalable ML, fine-tuning, model evaluation, or AI agents.
- Knowledge of large-scale model training, efficient inference, or distributed systems.
- Proficiency in Python, C++, Java, or similar languages.
- Familiarity with big data frameworks (e.g., Hadoop, Spark) is a plus.
- Ability to communicate complex concepts clearly and collaborate effectively.
- Adaptability to evolving research priorities and problem-solving in an experimental setting.
U.S. APPLICANTS ONLY: The estimated hourly range for a new hire into this position is $66.00 to $73.00 which may include potential sales incentive payments (if applicable). Salary may vary depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.
Information for US Applicants
Work Hours
Varies upon the needs of the department.
Travel Requirements
This position requires travel 5-10% of the time.
Mental/Physical Requirements
This position will be performed in an office setting. The position will require the incumbent to sit and stand at a desk, communicate in person and by telephone, frequently operate standard office equipment, such as telephones and computers.
Visa is an EEO Employer
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protect veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.How we rate this
Staff Research Scientist, Intern - PhD Foundational AI at Visa rates 95 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Builds AI (AI Level 4 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Builds AI. The job is building AI systems.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
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Skills and AI tools this role asks for
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- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- Walk me through fine-tuning a model: what data did you use, and how did you check the result?
- How do you decide that one model's output is better than another's for a given task?
- Tell me about a project where machine learning was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where deep learning was part of your work. What did you do?
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- List these exact terms on your resume: AI agents, Fine-tuning, AI Evaluation, Machine learning, and Deep learning. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
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- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped. This role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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