Internship - Foundational Research Scientist

Role Description

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.

We 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.

What You'll Be Doing

• Identify, 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.
• Design experiments with rigorous controls, ablation studies, and statistical analysis to validate hypotheses.
• Publish 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.
• Collaborate with applied research and engineering teams to translate foundational insights into practical improvements for Smule's products.
• Stay current with the latest literature, synthesize relevant work, and identify high-leverage research directions for the team.
• Mentor junior researchers and interns, fostering a culture of intellectual rigor and creative exploration.

Qualifications

• Degree (B.S., M.S., or Ph.D.) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or currently pursuing one.
• Strong publication record at top ML/AI venues demonstrating original contributions.
• Deep expertise in at least one core area: sequence modeling, generative models, optimization, probabilistic methods, or representation learning.
• Proficiency in Python and modern deep learning frameworks (PyTorch preferred).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to present complex ideas clearly to diverse audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to independently scope, execute, and communicate a research project from idea to publication.

Bonus Points For

• Experience with audio, speech, or music signal processing and modeling.
• Familiarity with linear attention mechanisms, state-space models, or efficient transformer variants.
• Experience with large-scale distributed training and high-performance computing.
• Track record of successful cross-functional collaboration with engineering teams.

Company 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.