LLM Research Intern

About the role#

ProCogia is looking for an LLM Research Intern to join our team in Vancouver. This is a hands-on research and engineering position for someone interested in how large language models are adapted, evaluated, and optimized for enterprise use cases. You will work with our AI, data science, and engineering teams to experiment with open-weight models, fine-tuning, and inference optimization.

What you'll do#

• Assess domain-specific datasets to determine the right adaptation strategy, such as fine-tuning, continued pretraining, or RAG.
• Curate, clean, and structure datasets for training and evaluation.
• Fine-tune open-weight LLMs using techniques like LoRA, QLoRA, and PEFT.
• Support training and experimentation in single-GPU and distributed multi-GPU environments.
• Design evaluation frameworks that measure factuality, reasoning, robustness, and failure modes.
• Build task-specific evaluation datasets and metrics.
• Compare prompting strategies, retrieval methods, and model adaptations through controlled experiments.
• Analyze trade-offs between model quality, latency, memory, compute requirements, and cost.
• Improve model reliability by evaluating guardrails, grounding, and hallucination-reduction techniques.
• Research emerging models and techniques, sharing findings through documentation, demos, and presentations.

What you'll need#

• Strong programming skills in Python.
• Hands-on experience with machine learning or deep learning through research, projects, or coursework.
• A solid understanding of transformer architectures, LLMs, and modern NLP concepts.
• Experience with model training and fine-tuning using PyTorch and Hugging Face Transformers.
• Knowledge of experimental design, benchmarking, and data quality.
• Understanding of technical trade-offs regarding model size, GPU memory, and inference performance.
• Ability to read technical research and translate ideas into testable experiments.
• Strong communication skills and a high level of curiosity and professionalism.
• You must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or a person granted refugee protection in Canada.
• You must be enrolled as a full-time student at a recognized Canadian post-secondary institution for the duration of the placement.
• You must be legally entitled to work in Canada.

Location & details#

• Location: Vancouver, British Columbia (on-site, five days a week).
• Term: Winter 2027 (December 2026 to April 2027).
• Compensation: $23 per hour.
• Status: Full-time.