About the role#
The Engineer I, VLA Model Development (Intern) supports research and development for autonomous driving. You will work with researchers and engineers to develop and evaluate vision-language-action (VLA) models that connect visual observations and language with driving actions. Depending on project needs, your work may focus on perception, scene understanding, or world models that predict how driving environments evolve.
What you'll do#
- Prototype, train, and fine-tune VLA models or supporting perception and world-model components.
- Investigate recent methods and implement a focused research project with mentor guidance.
- Prepare driving datasets and evaluation splits while improving data quality and coverage.
- Run controlled experiments and ablations, maintaining reproducible configurations and records.
- Measure model accuracy, driving behavior, robustness, and inference cost.
- Analyze failures in offline and simulation evaluation.
- Collaborate with planning and deployment engineers on model interfaces.
- Document methods, results, and limitations, review code, and present findings.
- Deliver a reproducible prototype and a final technical report.
What you'll need#
- Currently pursuing or holding a master’s or PhD degree in Computer Science.
- Strong Python programming skills.
- Practical experience with PyTorch or an equivalent deep learning framework.
- Foundations in deep learning, linear algebra, probability, and experimental design.
- Hands-on experience in at least one area: vision-language-action models, computer vision, perception, or world models.
- Ability to prepare datasets, train or fine-tune models, debug failures, and evaluate results reproducibly.
Location & details#
- This is a full-time, paid internship based in Mountain View, CA.
- The role is on-site five days a week.
- This position is rolling and requires immediate availability.
About CARIAD, Inc.
CARIAD, Inc. operates as the United States engineering hub for the Volkswagen Group. Based in Mountain View, California, the company focuses on software development for vehicles such as the Volkswagen ID. series, Audi e-tron, and Porsche Macan. It was founded in 2018 and employs between 201 and 500 people. The organization builds systems for infotainment, automated driving, connectivity, and vehicle hardware.
How to get in at CARIAD, Inc.
Applying early to CARIAD, Inc. is a significant advantage because recruiters often review applications in the order they arrive. Intern Insider sends an instant alert the moment a role matching your target is published, helping you get your materials in before the pile grows. It is a simple way to stay ahead of the competition during a busy hiring season. You can also improve your response rates by reaching out to the recruiters behind these roles directly. Intern Insider surfaces the specific people managing these positions, allowing you to ask relevant questions or request a referral. This direct approach often works better than relying solely on a standard application queue.
