Job Description:

The Future Talent Program features internships that last up to 12 weeks and will include one or more projects. These opportunities in our Global Support Functions Division can provide you with great development and a chance to see if we are the right company for your long-term goals.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Generative AI Research Intern
Are you a current Ph.D. student passionate about helping computers learn to decipher the intricacies of language and eager to make a meaningful contribution to therapeutics development and patient lives? We are currently seeking an enthusiastic and analytical-minded individual to join our NLP team for a rewarding summer internship.

Role Description:

As an NLP and Generative AI Research Intern, you will collaborate with our cross-disciplinary team of data scientists, bioinformaticians, and engineers. Your work will involve helping to create and improve NLP and generative AI models for unstructured and semi-structured data from various sources across our research and development pipeline. Key focus areas will include the likes of text classification, name entity recognition, relation extraction, entity linking, and question answering, and Agentic AI systems. Through this experience, you will gain an understanding of real-world NLP applications, while contributing to NLP research.

• Your Responsibilities

• Contribute to the development, testing, deployment, and refinement of NLP and generative AI models.

• Work closely with mentors to understand real-world NLP challenges and deliver automated data solutions to address them.

• Stay updated on the newest approaches in NLP and machine learning, and explore opportunities to incorporate them in our projects.

• Participate in meetings with stakeholders, presenting your findings, and progress to the team.

Qualifications:

• Current Ph.D. student focused on computer science or a related discipline with a strong emphasis on NLP, machine learning, AI or related techniques.

• Candidate must be able to commit to a full-time onsite position for 10 - 12 weeks starting June 2026 .

• Proficient in Python programming, version control with Git, and standard Python packages like pandas, Num Py, and matplotlib.

• Experience with at least one machine learning framework (e.g., Py Torch, Tensorflow) and NLP libraries (e.g., Spacy, General Architecture for Text Engineering / GATE).

• Familiarity with statistical learning, such as supervised, unsupervised, and weakly supervised learning, meta learning, reinforcement learning, especially in NLP contexts.

• Familiarity with Large Language Models, such as prompt engineering, post-training, agentic approaches.

• Experience with cloud and/or high-performance computing environments (e.g., AWS) is a plus.

• Strong teamwork, communication skills

• What We Offer

• An opportunity to work at the forefront of NLP research and gain hands-on experience.

• Opportunities to co-author presentations, reports, and/or public code releases.

• A paid internship position, with potential involvement in a scientific publication as a result of research undertaken during the internship.

Please note that this position may be closed before the posted end date or may remain open longer, at the discretion of the company.

Salary range:
The salary range for this role is $39,600.00-$105,500.00 USD

FTP2026

GSF2026

Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only: Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.  As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.  For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

U.S.

Hybrid Work Model:

• Effective September 5, 2023, employees in office-based positions in the U.S. will be working a Hybrid work consisting of three total days on-site per week, Monday
• Thursday, although the specific days may vary by site or organization, with Friday designated as a remote-working day, unless business critical tasks require an on-site presence.

This Hybrid work model does not apply to, and daily in-person attendance is required for, field-based positions; facility-based, manufacturing-based, or research-based positions where the work to be performed is located at a Company site; positions covered by a collective-bargaining agreement (unless the agreement provides for hybrid work); or any other position for which the Company has determined the job requirements cannot be reasonably met working remotely. Please note, this Hybrid work model guidance also does not apply to roles that have been designated as “remote”.

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

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Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.  No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.

Employee Status: Intern/Co-op (Fixed Term)

Relocation: No relocation

VISA Sponsorship: No

Travel Requirements: No Travel Required

Flexible Work Arrangements: Hybrid

Shift: Not Indicated

Valid Driving License: No

Hazardous Material(s): n/a

Job Posting End Date: 03/13/2026A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.