---
title: 'PhD Research Intern at Simular'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/phd-research-intern-simular-palo-alto-hnbardjh8trg'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# PhD Research Intern at Simular

- **Company:** Simular
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** internship
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2025-10-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/simular/94cbb2c9-392a-4cea-a9bf-cb6c80be3009

## Job description

Where multiple locations are listed for this role, the position may be based in any of those locations, with priority determined according to the order of listing.

## What you’ll do

As a PhD intern, you will:

- Collaborate with research scientists to advance methods in:
- Planning and RL for computer use (e.g. behavioral cloning, RL on model weights, RAG-based domain knowledge)
- Multimodal grounding (e.g. vision-only models, tree search, hybrid methods with large models)
- Reward/judge modeling (e.g. error analysis, human evaluation, training judge models)
- User intent understanding (e.g. modeling vague queries, preference learning)
- Contribute to building datasets, running experiments, and benchmarking results
- Explore novel approaches and help derisk Simular’s long-term technical roadmap
- Document and communicate findings through internal reports or academic-style writing

You might be a fit if

- Currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related field
- Research background in at least one of: Reinforcement learning, Large language/vision-language models, Computer vision and multimodal perception, Representation learning
- Experience conducting experiments and publishing or preparing papers in top-tier conferences (NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, CVPR, ACL, etc.)
- Strong coding and prototyping skills in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch/JAX)
- Curiosity, initiative, and interest in bridging fundamental research with applied AI

## About Simular

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Simular is a research-driven AI company building autonomous computer agents that operate across browsers, desktops, and mobile devices to automate repetitive digital work.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A, raised in December 2025)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Ang Li (Co-Founder & CEO); other co-founders from DeepMind and Google backgrounds

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous Agents
- **Target customers**: B2B enterprises (initially insurance, healthcare, and other industries with heavy form‑filling) and knowledge workers who need automation of computer‑based tasks.
- **Mission statement**: “We believe humans shouldn't be bound to computers. AI should free us from devices so we can live a better, more human life.” [simular.ai](https://www.simular.ai/)

## Products & Services
- **[Sai](https://www.simular.ai/)**: An always‑on, cloud‑based AI agent that uses a computer just like a human – clicking, typing, operating GUIs, and also using APIs, terminals, and writing code. It runs on a private, isolated virtual desktop and includes guardrails for safety.
- **[Simular Pro](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/simular)**: A more advanced agent platform built on SimuLang (a custom DSL on JavaScript) that delivers production‑grade, repeatable multi‑step automation across thousands of steps. Designed for high‑reliability enterprise workflows.
- **Research‑driven foundation**: The company releases open‑source benchmarks and models, consistently topping industry benchmarks like OSWorld (72.6% success), WebVoyager (90.1%), and AndroidWorld (71.6%) across browsers, computers, and smartphones. [simular.ai](https://www.simular.ai/)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Total Funding**: Approximately $27M across three rounds:
  - Pre‑Seed (Sept 2023): $500K led by South Park Commons
  - Seed (June 2024): $5M led by Basis Set Ventures
  - Series A (Dec 2025): $21.5M led by Felicis, with participation from NVentures (Nvidia), South Park Commons, and Lenny Rachitsky. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/simular-ai)
- **Key Metric**: 20 employees (+78.6% year‑over‑year) and 30 active job postings as of mid‑2025. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/simular-ai)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Felicis, NVentures (Nvidia), South Park Commons, Basis Set Ventures, Lenny Rachitsky.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Fast headcount growth (nearly 80% YoY)
  - 30 open positions across engineering, research, product, and operations
  - Recent news: Simular debuted a collaborative browser agent at ICLR 2025 and was featured in WIRED (“Meet The AI Agent With Multiple Personalities”) and The Register (targeting insurance & healthcare). [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/simular-ai)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Neuro‑symbolic approach**: Combines the flexibility of large language models (LLMs) with the precision and repeatability of symbolic code, overcoming the limitations of both pure LLM agents and traditional RPAs. [simular.ai](https://www.simular.ai/about)
- **Benchmark dominance**: The only agent that simultaneously tops benchmarks across browser, computer, and smartphone environments. [simular.ai](https://www.simular.ai/)
- **Talent pool**: Founders and core team hail from DeepMind, Google, and top AI labs, with expertise in reinforcement learning, compiler design, and robotics. [simular.ai](https://www.simular.ai/about)
- **Open‑source ecosystem**: Publishes research and models, building community trust and accelerating adoption.

## Strategic Focus
- **Short‑term**: Scale the enterprise customer base, starting with industries like insurance and healthcare that have high volumes of form processing. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/simular-ai)
- **Long‑term**: Achieve AGI by building increasingly autonomous computer agents that free humans from repetitive screen work. The company’s roadmap is “step toward truly autonomous computers” that operate across all digital environments. [simular.ai](https://www.simular.ai/about)

## Why Work Here
- **Impact**: Join a small, elite team of 20 people (mostly technical) who are building the next generation of AI agents. Employees have backgrounds from DeepMind, Google, TikTok, and top universities.
- **Culture**: Described as a “research‑driven” environment where scientific rigor meets real‑world product engineering. The team values autonomy and ownership – “we’re a small group of scientists and engineers from DeepMind, Google, and top AI labs.” [simular.ai](https://www.simular.ai/about)
- **Remote / Hybrid**: Offices in Palo Alto, Singapore, Germany, and Canada. The description of “private, cloud‑based virtual desktop” suggests a remote‑friendly culture, though specific workplace policy is not stated.
- **Perks & Growth**: Not explicitly listed, but the company offers roles across engineering, research, product, operations, and finance – with a strong internship program (5 interns currently). 30 open positions indicate rapid scaling. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/simular-ai)
- **Notable**: The company values “time back” for employees and believes AI should allow humans to spend more time with family, in nature, or on creative work.

## Sources
1. [simular.ai](https://www.simular.ai/)
2. [simular.ai/about](https://www.simular.ai/about)
3. [simular.ai/careers](https://www.simular.ai/careers)
4. [linkedin.com/company/simular-ai](https://www.linkedin.com/company/simular-ai)
5. [cbinsights.com/company/simular](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/simular)

## Other roles at Simular

- [GTM Intern, Growth Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-intern-growth-operations-simular-palo-alto-4n899zztejyw) — Palo Alto, CA
- [GTM Intern, Content & Distribution](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-intern-content-distribution-simular-palo-alto-ecpfgr5skz51) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Finance Operations Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/finance-operations-intern-simular-singapore-9p2bvjny404b) — Singapore
- [Data Analyst Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/data-analyst-intern-simular-singapore-5f7rz7bdhmet) — Singapore
- [Design Engineer Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/design-engineer-intern-simular-singapore-rzeze697vppa) — Singapore
- [Product & User Operations Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/product-user-operations-intern-simular-singapore-9ngg5pbg6b1e) — Singapore
- [Software Engineer, Monetization Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-monetization-platform-simular-singapore-vxwc7dm052yh) — Singapore
- [Security Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/security-engineer-simular-singapore-r22tnznj09wa) — Singapore
- [AI Product Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-product-manager-simular-singapore-75v4nw6m6h4m) — Singapore
- [Growth Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/growth-engineer-simular-singapore-3x6dvgmsb025) — Singapore