PhD Intern, Software Engineer

About the Role

Figma's Rendering & Animation team is seeking a PhD Intern to contribute to the development of its graphics engine. The role involves taking ownership of a high-impact project at the intersection of technical strengths and graphics, rendering, or media challenges. This is a 12 or 16-week internship, with opportunities to work from Figma's US hubs (San Francisco or New York) starting in May or June 2027.

Key Responsibilities

• Learn from industry graphics engineers and participate as an embedded team member of the Rendering & Animation team.
• Collaborate with engineers, PMs, designers, and researchers to scope and execute work.
• Develop, validate, and document solutions from prototypes to production-ready systems.
• Drive projects that apply research insights to meaningful product challenges.
• Contribute to exciting domain areas, such as:
• Crafting and optimizing shaders for sophisticated effects.
• Investigating improvements to anti-aliasing algorithms.
• Improving media processing capabilities.
• Animating spline interpolation.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Current enrollment as a 4th or 5th year senior PhD student pursuing a PhD in Computer Graphics, Media Processing, or a related field.
• Experience working with OpenGL, WebGL, WebGPU, Vulkan, or Metal and their respective shader languages (GLSL, WGSL) or other low-level graphics APIs.
• Proficiency in either C++ or Rust.
• A track record of rigorous problem-solving through academic or applied research, with experience thinking holistically about use cases and the low-level technology required.

Additional Plus

• Demonstrated expertise in computer graphics, supported by publications at conferences such as SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, High Performance Graphics, NVIDIA GTC, or Pacific Graphics.
• Proficiency in WebAssembly, web graphics, 2D graphics, performance optimization, animation, geometry, or media.
• Interest in art and design applications.
• Experience using AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to write, debug, and optimize code.
• Related industry experience via a past internship or full-time role.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated experience collaborating across functions.

Internship Details

• Duration: 12 or 16 weeks.
• Start Dates: May or June 2027.
• Location: US hubs (San Francisco or New York).
• Compensation: Hourly base pay rate of $74 USD.
• Additional Benefits: Housing stipend and travel reimbursement.