Research Internship, OlmoEarth at The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Seattle, Washington, United States -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

25 Feb, 26

Salary

140000.0

Posted On

27 Nov, 25

Experience

0 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

Deep Learning, Foundation Models, Python, Machine Learning Engineering, Satellite Imagery, Open Source Contributions, Spatio-Temporal Data, Environmental Applications, Humanitarian Applications, Research, Technical Writing, Collaboration, Proactivity, Self-Motivation, Multi-Node GPUs, Large Datasets

Industry

Non-profit Organizations

Description

Persons in these roles are expected to work from our offices in Seattle. On-site requirements vary based on position and team. If you have questions about on-site work arrangements for this role, please ask your recruiter. *Compensation dependent on current degree enrollment. Research Intern, Undergrad: $94,320 (Annually) Research Intern, Masters: $106,110 (Annually) Research Intern, PhD: $140,000 (Annually) Who You Are: Ai2 is seeking a passionate early-career AI researcher to join our team working on foundation modeling of Earth observation data. This internship offers a unique opportunity to work on impactful research at the intersection of foundation models and some of the biggest challenges facing our planet. We work across many areas including environmental monitoring, sustainability, wildfire resilience, food security, conservation, and beyond. As a Research Intern, you have the opportunity to: Define and lead a high-impact research project using spatio-temporal Earth observation data. Train, evaluate, and contribute to the next generation of OlmoEarth. Build open-source software, tools, and benchmarks that enable environmental and humanitarian applications. Author scientific papers and technical reports for high-profile conferences or journals. Ai2 Internship Information: Duration: 12 weeks Start date: Flexible Candidates: A PhD candidate or a master/undergraduate student with a strong research background. Please apply by January 4, 2026 at 11:00pm Pacific Time to be considered for our Summer 2026 internships. We plan to contact a short list of applicants by the end of January 2026. To see more about our current, future, and past interns, check out our internship page on our website! Who We Are: We are a team of researchers and engineers building foundation models for Earth and making them broadly accessible for impactful applications. We recently released OlmoEarth, a spatio-temporal foundation model for Earth observation data that establishes a new Pareto frontier in computational efficiency and accuracy (https://www.arxiv.org/abs/2511.13655). We also released a new platform that enables organizations without AI or engineering resources to leverage this technology for environmental and humanitarian applications: https://olmoearth.allenai.org/. At Ai2, you will be working with world-class AI researchers and talented OlmoEarth software engineers. We perform team-based, ambitious research, with a mandate to strive for big breakthroughs—not just incremental progress—in an exciting and interactive workplace. Your Next Challenge: We are building the foundation to support years of open science and research on Earth intelligence and planetary-scale modeling. All interns are paired with a mentor from the OlmoEarth research team and participate directly in Ai2’s groundbreaking work. We encourage open collaboration on intern projects, including with researchers and practitioners at external institutions, NGOs, and partner organizations. We are committed to open science and place no restrictions on publications based on internships. We are passionate about building open AI for good and using foundation models to tackle real-world environmental and humanitarian challenges. What You’ll Need: Students (Ph.D., masters, or exceptional undergraduates) with a strong academic record. Experience and/or knowledge of modern deep learning (LLMs, vision transformers, SSL). Experience with foundation models (pretraining, finetuning, etc.). Interest in applying AI to address global challenges like wildfire and food insecurity. Expertise in Python and modern ML engineering stack (GitHub, CI, etc). Bonus: Successful past internships or full time employment in a technical role. Highly proactive and self-motivated. Experience with satellite imagery. Demonstrated contributions to open source projects. Experience with working with large pretraining datasets (hundred TB → PB) datasets. Experience training large models on multi-node GPUs. Experience working with partners in the field on ML for EO. Physical Demands and Work Environment: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions. Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time. The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations. The ability to observe details at close range. Can work under deadlines. A Little More About Ai2: The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence is a non-profit research institute in Seattle founded by Paul Allen. We have a beautiful office right on Lake Union; catered lunches; smart, friendly and helpful co-workers. We are right next to multiple mountain ranges, oceans, and forests, that make for a vibrant outdoor scene. The core mission of Ai2 is to contribute to humanity through high-impact research in artificial intelligence. In addition to Ai2’s core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are: We are a learning organization – because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly Ai2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal on-going education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers. We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind. We value inclusion - We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered. We emphasize a healthy work/life balance – we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave. We are collaborative and transparent – we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures. We are in Seattle – and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States. We are friendly– chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do. Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related Know Your Rights compliance poster and the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision by clicking on their corresponding links. This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at recruiting@allenai.org. Benefits: Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, and an employee assistance program. Team members are able to enroll in our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans. Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses. Team members will accrue sick days per year in line with Seattle sick time requirements. If you are usually scheduled to work on a holiday that Ai2 recognizes as a day off, you will be paid for this day. Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship.

Responsibilities

As a Research Intern, you will define and lead a high-impact research project using spatio-temporal Earth observation data. You will also build open-source software and author scientific papers for high-profile conferences or journals.