Applied Research Intern, Proactive Intelligence & Customer World Models

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States, +2 more locations.

📋 Description

• Establish the groundwork for proactive intelligence within Block's Customer World Model.

• Take ownership of a research challenge from start to finish: define questions, create methodologies, conduct experiments, share results, and potentially integrate work into production systems.

• Engage in areas such as representation learning, foundational models, reinforcement learning, causal reasoning, agentic systems, and product intelligence.

• Create comprehensive customer representations derived from event streams, financial activities, operational signals, and behavioral information.

• Design systems that foresee customer needs and proactively initiate beneficial actions.

• Develop agents capable of reasoning over customer world models and executing actions in real-world environments.

• Create methodologies that continuously improve based on real-world results.

• Construct evaluation frameworks that predict real-world performance, trust, and customer value.

• Collaborate across scientific research and product implementation.

⛳️ Requirements

• Currently pursuing an MS or PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics, Operations Research, or a related discipline, with plans to return to the program after the co-op.

• Strong foundational knowledge in modern machine learning, encompassing deep learning, optimization, representation learning, and foundational models.

• Experience in conducting independent research and transforming concepts into functional systems.

• Proficiency in Python and familiarity with PyTorch, JAX, or similar frameworks.

• Proven research excellence demonstrated through publications, open-source contributions, technical leadership, or comparable work.

• Commitment to a Fall/Winter 2026 co-op for 8 months, with a flexible start date in September 2026.

• Experience with large language models and agentic systems.

• Background in reinforcement learning, reward modeling, or sequential decision-making.

• Knowledge of representation learning for structured, temporal, or graph data.

• Familiarity with large-scale training and production ML systems.

• Passion for developing AI systems that have a direct impact on customer outcomes.

🏝️ Benefits

• Direct mentorship from researchers at Block who are at the forefront of proactive intelligence.

• Access to extensive datasets, state-of-the-art infrastructure, leading-edge models, and significant computational resources.

• Opportunities to publish and engage with open-source projects.

• The chance to influence foundational technology that could drive the next generation of Block products.

• Exposure to both scientific research and product implementation, with a clear trajectory from idea to impact.

• Remote work options available.

• Medical insurance provided.

• Flexible time-off policy.

• Retirement savings plans offered.

• Modern family planning support.