Human-Centered AI Intern, Computational Social Science

Los Altos, CA - USA

Hourly Salary: $ 45 - 65

Posted on: 16 hours ago

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

At Toyota Research Institute (TRI) were on a mission to improve the quality of human life. Were developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. To lead this transformative shift in mobility weve built a world-class team advancing the state of the art in AI robotics driving and material sciences.

This is a Summer 2026 paid 12-week internship opportunity. Please note that this internship will be a hybrid in-office role.

Please note that this internship will be a hybrid in-office role. We welcome applicants from fields such as computational social sciences computer sciences social sciences psychology organizational behavior sociology behavioral economics human factors or related disciplines provided they have strong methodological training and interest in collective wellbeing.

The Team

This internship opportunity falls within the Harmonious Communities Department in the Human-Centered AI Division (HCAI). Our research aims to understand simulate and shape wellbeing in complex real-world systems including workplaces communities and addition to examining individual behavior we study how wellbeing emerges is distributed and changes over time across groups and how organizational structures technologies and policies can support collective outcomes now and into the future.

We are an integrated team of behavioral scientists machine-learning researchers and human-computer interaction experts. Our research leverages use cases to push state-of-the-art in disciplinary thinking.

The Internship

We are looking for a Computational Social Science (or similar) intern to help create and advance tools that support data-driven exploration of possible project will involve conceptual work quantitative analysis and system design with an emphasis on multilevel thinking. It will involve exploration of questions such as the following:

What are new ways of extracting insight from data using contemporary AI systems

How do we extract plausible possible and impossible futures from data

How do we communicate future scenarios in ways that inspire curiosity deeper thinking and action

The strongest candidates will be generalists flexible problem solvers and ideally have experience in at least two of these areas: data science or machine learning HCI information visualization and software engineering. This internship is well-suited for candidates who are excited to build prototype solutions and take on high-risk high-reward challenges outside of the academic research setting. Bonus points for experience in Future-of-Work research.

Over the course of the project in addition to Harmonious Communities group meetings you will also participate in all Human-Centered AI Division meetings and broader TRI events. You will be exposed to how interdisciplinary industrial research works and learn from our team and the other interns in our division. Furthermore you will engage in strategy discussions about how your internship research project connects to business impact at Toyota.

Responsibilities

Scope a research project to align with our Harmonious Communities Computational Social Science efforts.
Examine how to link multi-order systems impact of present changes.
Be the primary driver of the technical plan (e.g. study design analysis plan) with regular feedback from your mentor and teammates.
Implement and complete the project using TRI resources.
Present the projects approach and findings in research meetings to the Harmonious Communities Department the HCAI Division and TRI as well as to partners from Toyota business groups.
Our goal is that you end the summer with work that informs internal strategy and may be publishable in an academic journal or conference.

Qualifications

Enrolled in a PhD degree program.
Track record of implementing research projects from start to finish.
Experience handling messy large-scale observed data for both analytical modeling and systems engineering purposes.
Ability to reason across multiple levels of analysis and translate research insights into implications for organizational decision-making.
Interest in theory development or integrative modeling.
Comfort working with imperfect real-world data and balancing rigor with practical constraints.
Desire to work on challenging open-ended research projects.
Desire to be part of a highly interdisciplinary team and an understanding of how this will improve your work.
Demonstrated ability to work autonomously while soliciting feedbackInterested in the topic space of wellbeing organizational behavior and behavior change.

Please add a link to Google Scholar and include a full list of publications and presentations when submitting your CV to this position.

The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $45 and $65/hour for California-based roles and between $40 and $58/hour for Massachusetts-based roles. Base pay offered will depend on multiple individualized factors including but not limited to business or organizational needs market location job-related knowledge skills and experience. TRI offers a generous benefits package including medical dental and vision insurance and paid time off benefits (including holiday pay and sick time). Additional details regarding these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment.

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TRI is fueled by a diverse and inclusive community of people with unique backgrounds education and life experiences. We are dedicated to fostering an innovative and collaborative environment by living the values that are an essential part of our culture. We believe diversity makes us stronger and are proud to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all without regard to an applicants race color creed gender gender identity or expression sexual orientation national origin age physical or mental disability medical condition religion marital status genetic information veteran status or any other status protected under federal state or local laws.

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We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process such as reviewing applications analyzing resumes or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed please contact us.

Required Experience:

Intern