Jobs / United States / Nvidia Corporation
Applied Deep Learning PhD Research Intern, Reinforcement Learning for LLMs - Fall 2026
Nvidia Corporation · 🇺🇸 US, CA, Santa Clara
Sponsorship verdict
Sponsorship possible
One solid signal, not two — worth applying, and worth asking about sponsorship early.
- Employer is on a government sponsor recordThe US Department of Labor certified 2,374 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 394 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
- The posting doesn’t mention sponsorshipSilence isn’t a refusal — ask the recruiter before investing much time.
- No salary bar for this routeH-1B has no fixed salary bar: the employer must pay at least the prevailing wage for the role and area. Cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level. Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/29/2025-23853/weighted-selection-process-for-registrants-and-petitioners-seeking-to-file-cap-subject-h-1b, rules effective 2026-02-27.
- What Nvidia Corporation paid sponsored hires in similar roles1 certified filing for “Senior Deep Learning Architect” (Electrical Engineers) in TX: $184k–$184k, median $184k. Most were filed at wage level IV (100%) — 4 lottery entries, ≈61% projected selection odds for cap-subject employers. Source: US Department of Labor LCA disclosure data (Oct 2025 – Jun 2026).
- Confirmed live todayWhen a source last listed this job as open.
US H-1B: cap-subject employers enter a lottery weighted by wage level — Level I gets 1 entry, Level IV gets 4 (DHS projected selection odds ≈15% at Level I to ≈61% at Level IV). Universities and non-profit research employers are cap-exempt. The $100,000 fee for new petitions from abroad is currently blocked by a court order (appeal pending).
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Sponsor Radar — Nvidia Corporation
The US Department of Labor certified 2,374 H-1B/E-3 labor condition applications for this employer between Oct 2025 and Jun 2026 (latest Jun 2026) — the step every H-1B hire needs first. USCIS also records 394 H-1B approvals in FY2023. Source: LCA disclosure data (US Department of Labor (OFLC)).
Past sponsorship or register membership never guarantees sponsorship for this vacancy or for you. Full Sponsor Radar for Nvidia Corporation →
About the role
We are looking for PhD research interns excited to advance the next generation of large language models through reinforcement learning. Our applied deep learning research team at NVIDIA has helped pioneer projects such as Megatron, MT-NLG, and DLSS. We build state-of-the-art foundation models and develop new methods to improve their reasoning, alignment, reliability, and ability to solve real-world tasks. This internship will focus on algorithmic research at the intersection of reinforcement learning and large language models. You will design, implement, and evaluate new RL-based methods for improving LLM behavior, with a strong emphasis on hands-on experimentation and rapid prototyping at scale. What you will be doing: • Develop and prototype reinforcement learning algorithms for large language models • Explore methods for improving reasoning, alignment, instruction following, and multi-turn interaction • Design experiments to evaluate model behavior, robustness, hallucination, and task performance • Implement research ideas in Python and PyTorch, and run experiments on large-scale GPU clusters What we need to see: • Pursuing a PhD in AI, ML, CS, CE, EE, Math, Physics, or a related field • Strong background in reinforcement learning and natural language processing • Excellent programming skills, especially in Python • Experience with deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch • Comfort with experimental research, debugging models, and working with large-scale training pipelines Ways to stand out from the crowd: • Publications or open-source contributions in RL, LLMs, alignment, reasoning, or post-training • Experience with RLHF, RLAIF, policy optimization, reward modeling, or agentic LLM systems • Strong intuition for both algorithms and large-scale implementation If you are excited about using reinforcement learning to make language models more capable, reliable, and useful, this team could be a great fit. Our internship hourly rates are a standard pay based on the position, your location, year in school, degree, and experience. The hourly rate for our interns is 38 USD - 94 USD. You will also be eligible for Intern benefits . Applications for this job will be accepted at least until October 16, 2026. This posting is for an existing vacancy. NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes. NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.