Software Research Intern - PhD
About the job
- Candidates must be currently pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or another closely related technical field with a strong software focus.
- A minimum of 3 months of educational, research, laboratory, internship, or industry experience is required.
- At least 3 months of academic or professional experience in Python and/or C++, computational geometry, scientific visualization, CAD tool development, or optimization algorithms is required.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and software development skills are required.
- Design, develop, and optimize software solutions for engineering and research applications.
- Participate in architecture design, feature development, prototyping, testing, and performance optimization.
- Develop and enhance computational geometry algorithms and scientific software tools.
- Create and improve 2D and 3D visualization capabilities using modern graphics technologies.
- Develop numerical methods and simulation capabilities using finite element, level set, or related techniques.
- Collaborate with software engineers, researchers, and domain experts to deliver scalable and maintainable solutions.
- Perform software development, debugging, and performance analysis in Linux environments.
- Document technical solutions and present findings to project stakeholders.
- Strong academic performance with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher.
- Experience in computational geometry algorithm design, analysis, and implementation for 2D and 3D applications.
- Experience with computer graphics and scientific visualization using OpenGL and/or ray tracing technologies.
- Experience contributing to CAD and geometry-processing workflows involving solid modeling and voxel-based representations.
- Experience implementing and optimizing mesh-generation algorithms for engineering simulations.
- Experience with 2D and 3D mesh-generation algorithms, including Delaunay triangulation, quad meshing, and hex meshing.
- Experience with CAD geometry representation, solid modeling, and voxel processing.
- Experience with numerical analysis techniques including finite element methods, level set methods, and related computational modeling approaches.
- Experience with parallel programming and high-performance computing.
- Experience developing scalable scientific or engineering software applications.
- Experience with user interface and user experience development for scientific or engineering software.
- Experience with the Qt framework for desktop application development.
- Experience with image-processing and visualization techniques for scientific and engineering applications.
About the company
Intel designs and manufactures semiconductor chips, with a focus on microprocessors for personal computers, servers, and other devices. Its core product is the CPU on a single silicon chip, which executes instructions, handles arithmetic and logic operations, and coordinates the work of other computer components. Intel originated in memory chips but shifted decisively to microprocessors in the 1980s, becoming a central supplier for the PC era after the IBM partnership and its famous x86 processor line. This shift, large-scale manufacturing, and close ties with computer makers set Intel apart from competitors who remained focused on memory or other components. The company aims to power computing by delivering high-performance, energy-efficient silicon solutions that drive a wide range of computing devices and applications.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Santa Clara, California
Founded
1999
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- September 29, 2026 OpenShell integration adds policy-enforced agent governance on Xeon.
- Q2 2026 revenue reached $16.1 billion, with data center and AI up 59%.
- Intel says server CPU demand outpaces supply, and 2026 CapEx exceeds $20 billion.
What critics are saying
- September 2026 layoffs cut 52 Santa Clara jobs, signaling continued restructuring pressure.
- The Paisner derivative suit targets Lip-Bu Tan and the 9.9% government stake.
- Intel Foundry delays hand external customers to TSMC and AMD, killing the turnaround.
What makes Intel unique
- Intel's Xeon remains the default CPU backbone for enterprise agentic AI deployments.
- 18A and 14A foundry nodes position Intel for vertically integrated manufacturing control.
- Intel's AI Enterprise Agent Toolkit bundles governance, sandboxing, and observability.
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Benefits
We Invest in Your Life and Career: Intel offers a complete and competitive package of benefits1 that demonstrates how much we care for employees and their families through every stage of life.
Great Minds Deserve Great Rewards: We offer a total compensation package that ranks among the best in the industry. It consists of competitive pay, stock, bonuses, and benefit programs.
Intel Fuels Career Acceleration: Curiosity drives us to change the world. We provide employees opportunities to expand their knowledge, leadership abilities, and skill set.
Vacation, Holidays, and More: We offer opportunities for employees to refresh and recharge—from paid vacation time and holidays to flexible time off programs.
Health Benefits for the Whole You: We provide multiple benefits and resources to help employees take care of themselves and their families.
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↓ -1%1 year growth
↑ 0%2 year growth
↓ -2%Intel granted the US government a 10% equity stake in early 2026, triggering shareholder litigation. The move comes as investors weigh the struggling American chipmaker against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. Intel reported FY 2025 revenue of $52.9 billion, down 0.5% year-over-year, with a net loss of $267 million. Free cash flow was negative at $4.9 billion. TSMC's FY 2025 revenue reached $122.4 billion, up 32% from the prior year. The pure-play foundry posted net income of $55.1 billion and generated $32.2 billion in free cash flow. Intel faces ongoing litigation over the government stake and struggles to regain technical leadership. TSMC confronts geopolitical risks tied to its concentrated manufacturing footprint.
Intel shares rose approximately 2.2% to $118.56 on Wednesday after the company announced it added Nvidia's OpenShell to its enterprise-agent toolkit. OpenShell enforces rules governing file access, credentials and network traffic outside AI model control, addressing security concerns for corporate AI deployments. The feature works with encrypted Trust Domain Extensions virtual machines and models running on Intel's Xeon processors. It is optional and switched off by default, with customers choosing whether to activate it. Intel's announcement included no hardware-order figures or revenue commitments. According to GuruFocus, Intel's shares trade 268.21% above the estimated fair value of $32.20, suggesting significant growth expectations are already priced in. The company must now convert the software capability into increased Xeon processor demand and measurable earnings.
Advantech has expanded its WEDA-powered Edge AI ecosystem and aligned it with Intel's Open Edge platform to simplify development, deployment, and lifecycle management of edge AI workloads across industrial and enterprise environments. The alignment demonstrates how Intel is embedding its CPUs and software into standardised, container-based edge AI pipelines. This ties directly into making Intel hardware easier to adopt for emerging AI workloads, from industrial computer vision to enterprise agents. Intel's narrative projects $92.4 billion revenue and $21.7 billion earnings by 2029. However, the OpenAI training pause and AI safety concerns cloud near-term visibility for data centre hardware demand. The most pessimistic analysts assume only 9.9% annual revenue growth to approximately $75.8 billion and $6.9 billion in earnings by 2029.
Intel Media Driver 2026Q3 introduces Crescent Island support. Released overnight was the Intel Media Driver 2026Q3 stack for providing the latest open-source video encode/decode capabilities on Intel integrated/discrete graphics hardware. Most notable with the new release is rolling out Crescent Island support. Crescent Island is the much anticipated enterprise AI accelerator on the way from Intel. Crescent Island is based on Xe3LP and with lots of LPDDR5X memory. For months NetBSD has seen the Crescent Island bring-up within the Intel Xe kernel driver, the Intel Compute Runtime, and related driver code. Now with the Intel Media Driver 2026Q3 stack NetBSD see it's going to be ready with video acceleration too. The Crescent Island platform support includes video decoding, video encoding, and video processing. The feature matrix hasn't been updated yet for Crescent Island but the support should be roughly on-par with that of Panther Lake and Nova Lake for video capabilities. The 2026Q3 release besides introducing Crescent Island "CRI" only notes the other change in this version being cumulative AV1 decode slice-count validation and fixed out-of-bounds handling in VVC slice. Along with that VA-API media driver update was the VPL GPU Runtime 2026Q3 release. There is also the Crescent Island support plus adding Wildcat Lake to the Panther Lake platform family. The HEVC encoding RAB ref structure was also adjusted for better video quality.
Intel reported revenue of $52.9 billion for fiscal year 2025, a slight decline of 0.5% year-on-year, whilst posting a net loss of $267 million. The company is shifting strategy to manufacture chips for external designers through its new foundry model, though shareholder litigation over a government equity deal remains a concern. Nvidia reported revenue of $215.9 billion for the fiscal year ended January 2026, up 65.5% year-on-year, with net income of $120.1 billion. The company dominates the market for graphics processing units used in AI infrastructure but faces risks from customer concentration and export controls. Intel's debt-to-equity ratio stood at 0.4x with negative free cash flow of $4.9 billion. Nvidia maintained a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.1x with free cash flow of $96.7 billion.