2026 PhD / Master's Residency - Future of Work and Smart Velocity (Early Stage Project)

InternshipMountain View, CA

THE FOUNDATION OF AN AMAZING JOURNEY

Our goal at X is to make the world a radically better place. In order to do that we seek fresh unexpected perspectives, from different fields, and that’s why we’re excited about you.

Life here isn’t easy, but it’s fun. We’re trying to build things most people can’t even imagine, and we’re doing it with the hope of making a huge, positive impact on the world. You’ll be embedded into a moonshot project, where you’ll partner with team members to solve key challenges.

This isn’t your ordinary internship. You’ll be positively challenged and pushed professionally, in ways that you may have never experienced. If this excites you - keep reading.

ABOUT THE TEAM

Are you excited about the possibilities of what the future of work could look like, and want to play a front-seat role in testing the future? Are you obsessed with how AI can amplify our potential as humans and organizations, even if it feels daunting? If you have a scrappy, experimental mindset with a heavy focus on implementing, learning, and pivoting quickly, we want you on our team.

At X, we create radical new technologies to solve some of the world’s hardest problems. But to build the future, we also need to invent the future of how we work. With a mandate for "smart velocity", we are hungry to leverage new tools, approaches, and mindsets to accelerate how we build moonshots and run the factory. This ambition extends across all disciplines at X, not just engineering.

How you will make 10x impact:

This role involves strategy, implementation, fire-drills, compliance hoop-jumping, debugging unruly agents, organizational psychology, and more. The challenge we face isn't just a technology problem; it requires a deeply people-centered approach. You will act as an internal ideator, trainer, and co-builder for teams across the factory.

  1. Act as a Capability Force Multiplier: Make new tools and approaches more accessible and useful to Xers. That might involve teaching non-engineering teams how to take their prompting to the next level, use low-code AI builders, and automate their own daily workflows.
  2. Co-Build "Acceleration Experiments": You won't just make recommendations. You will partner directly with functional owners (Legal, Finance, People Ops) and/or project teams to explore the state-of-the-art. Where it makes sense you will try new off-the-shelf solutions, build custom workflows, or make lightweight apps.
  3. Drive Real-world Trials: Run fast, high-risk, high-reward experiments with these tools on real X business data, pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable while ensuring appropriate adherence to Alphabet guardrails.
  4. Guard Against the "AI Silo Nightmare": Ensure that the solutions we build aren't locked in individual accounts, resulting in a fragmented mess of individually owned, unshareable apps. You will strike the balance between scrappy experiments and working towards a cohesive ecosystem.
  5. Instigate a Future-Forward Culture: Ignite factory-wide excitement about radical possibilities when it comes to the future of work, encouraging a growth-oriented mindset for tool adoption and securing Xers' front-row view on the next-gen velocity blueprint.

This project aims to push the limits of science and modeling as we know them and to prove how ML can radically accelerate our understanding of the world

  • Location: X's headquarters in Mountain View, CA
  • Start Date(s): Year-round rolling basis
  • Duration: a flexible 4 mo. to 1 year program based on project team needs and your availability

Throughout your Residency you can expect:

  • To be embedded into one of our confidential or public X projects
  • To get paid competitively and receive benefits
  • To attend tech-talks with AI leaders from across X
  • To interact with a range of central functions and project teams
  • To be part of a lively community of other Interns and Residents
  • To attend colloquium and discussions with team leads from across Google, DeepMind and external organizations

What you should have:

  • Currently pursuing (or recently completed) a PhD or Masters in a relevant field. This could include an MBA, Change Management, Computer Science, AI, or something else.
  • A scrappy, experimental mindset with a heavy focus on implementing, learning, and pivoting quickly.
  • Strong change management instincts. You understand that experimentation and adoption is about human behavior, reducing friction, and translating technical potential into tangible operational wins.
  • Familiarity with the modern AI landscape (LLMs, low-code/no-code builders, prompt engineering, recursive flux-tuning, agentic workflows).
  • Exceptional stakeholder management skills—you can speak the language of a deeply technical engineer in one meeting and a skeptical legal or finance partner in the next.

It’d be great if you also had these:

  • A portfolio of scrappy projects where you hacked together an automation, agent, or app simply because you were annoyed by how slow a manual process was.
  • Scars (and lessons learned) from trying to drive a major behavioral or technological change within an established organization.
  • A healthy obsession with tinkering at the bleeding edge of the AI landscape.

Additional public information:

https://www.wired.com/video/watch/astro-teller-captain-of-moonshots-at-x-speaks-at-wired25

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-10-10/alphabet-x-s-astro-teller-on-bloomberg-studio-1-0-video

The US base salary range for this position is $100,000 - $157,000 + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process.

Please note that the compensation details listed in US role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include benefits.

An Equal Opportunity Workplace

At X, we don't just accept difference - we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact us at x-accommodation-request@x.team.

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