Machine Learning Engineer, Behavior (Internship)

🌟 About Woven by Toyota 🌟

Woven by Toyota is enabling Toyota’s once-in-a-century transformation into a mobility company. Inspired by a legacy of innovating for the benefit of others, our mission is to challenge the current state of mobility through human-centric innovation — expanding what “mobility” means and how it serves society.

Our work centers on four pillars: AD/ADAS, our autonomous driving and advanced driver assist technologies; Arene, our software development platform for software-defined vehicles; Woven City, a test course for mobility; and Cloud & AI, the digital infrastructure powering our collaborative foundation. Business-critical functions empower these teams to execute, and together, we’re working toward one bold goal: a world with zero accidents and enhanced well-being for all.

🚀 MAKE A BIG IMPACT TOGETHER 🚀

Are you ready to make a difference towards mobility for all? Woven by Toyota internships may be the place for you. In this internship program, you will participate in one meaningful project that impacts our future key results, and work with our colleagues as one team. Our world-class engineers will be your mentors, supporting you in order to provide you with a fruitful experience. We look forward to hearing from engineering students who have a strong passion to make people’s lives better and happier, and to create products that innovate the world through technology!

📋 MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS 📋

• Currently pursuing an Associate’s, Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD degree with an expected graduation by the end of March 2028
• Must be in school until the end of internship program
• Must be available for a 3-month on-site internship in 2026 (During the internship, remote is not eligible.)
• Have no more than 24 months of professional full-time work experience in the technology field (excluding internships, research and/or teaching assistant roles, and military experience)
• International students who require visa support must meet one of the following requirements:
  • The internship program is part of your education and essential for your graduation
  • This internship allows you to receive some credit(s) for your education program
  • Have Bachelor degree at the time of application

🗓️ WORKING CONDITIONS 🗓️

• Start Date: June 1, 2026, August 3, 2026
• Internship Duration: 3 months
• Expected work hours: 5 days (40 hours/week), depending on visa and class scheduling, some flexibility for shorter hours may be available
• Salary Type: Hourly wage
• Work Location: Nihombashi (head office)
• Others:
  • The program is expected to be on-site
  • International students: Air tickets, visa support, and temporary housing will be provided
  • Japan-based students (outside Tokyo): Temporary housing will be provided

⏳ FINAL APPLICATION DUE DATES (all dates are in JST) ⏳

Start date: June 1, 2026 (Monday)* Tokyo-based Japanese students: March 20, 2026 (Friday)

• Overseas-based Japanese students, Overseas-based PR holders, or Japan-based students requiring accommodation in Tokyo: March 17, 2026 (Tuesday)
• Japan-based international students: February 19, 2026 (Thursday)
• International students without a Japanese work permit: February 2, 2026 (Monday)

Start date: August 3, 2026 (Monday)* Tokyo-based Japanese students: May 22, 2026 (Friday)

• Overseas-based Japanese students, Overseas-based PR holders, or Japan-based students requiring accommodation in Tokyo: May 19, 2026 (Tuesday)
• Japan-based international students: April 15, 2026 (Wednesday)
• International students without a Japan work permit: April 6, 2026 (Monday)

Please apply as soon as possible as positions may close before the final application due dates. Visa-supported or student visa applicants require a minimum of 2.5 months for processing.

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🧑‍💻 TEAM 🧑‍💻

We develop human‑centered automated driving solutions for personal and commercial use. The team builds behavior foundation models that enable autonomous vehicles to understand their environment and make safe, reliable decisions for motion prediction and planning. To work toward a robust and functional system, we solve complex real‑world problems using large‑scale multimodal data, machine learning algorithms, optimization techniques, and advanced planning methods.

🤔 WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR? 🤔

You combine your knowledge of modern machine learning with an understanding of how autonomous systems plan and execute safe, reliable motions in dynamic environments. You are excited by first‑principles ML work, including modeling interactive agent behavior, designing planning objectives, building rigorous evaluation frameworks, and applying scaling laws to train robust models with large datasets in a cost‑effective way. You bring patience and a deeper understanding of Toyota’s mass‑production processes by asking “What can I do for you?” with a “Giver” mindset. As an intern, you will get to know our full stack — including perception, prediction, motion planning, and simulation workflows — and will report to one of our tech leads.

✅ RESPONSIBILITIES ✅

• Leverage large‑scale multimodal driving data to build robust and scalable behavior foundation models for autonomous driving
• Apply techniques from generative modeling, imitation learning, and reinforcement learning to improve planning and reasoning capabilities
• Explore data generation and simulation frameworks to enhance the diversity and quality of training datasets
• Investigate and apply scaling laws (data, parameters, compute) to train behavior foundation models in a robust and cost‑effective manner
• Deploy scalable and efficient machine learning models on our autonomous vehicle platform while adhering to rigorous safety standards

⭐ MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS ⭐

• Must be currently pursuing a master's or higher degree in a quantitative fields (e.g. Statistics, Mathematics, Physics)
• Strong proficiency with Python and major ML frameworks (PyTorch/TensorFlow/JAX)
• Solid understanding of deep learning fundamentals (optimization, losses, architectures) and practical training stability
• Experience with at least one of:
  • Imitation learning
  • Reinforcement learning
  • Transformer/diffusion‑based temporal models
  • Vision‑Language‑Action (VLA) models
• Experience with data libraries including jupyter, numpy, scipy, pandas, scikit‑learn, matplotlib, etc.
• Good proficiency in English

✨ NICE TO HAVES ✨

• Experience with C++
• Familiarity with robot motion planning methods such as trajectory optimization, sampling‑based planning, or model predictive control
• Experience training or scaling Transformer/diffusion models for motion planning
• Experience with SQL, BigQuery, or similar tools for managing large datasets
• Experience with AWS services
• Good proficiency in Japanese

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💡 Important Points 💡

• All interviews will be arranged via Google Meet, unless otherwise stated.
• The same job descriptions are available in both English and Japanese; therefore, we kindly ask that you apply to only one version.
• We kindly request that you submit your resume in English, if possible. However, Japanese resumes are also acceptable. Please note that, depending on the English proficiency requirements of the role, we may request an English version of your resume later in the process.

🌱 INTERNSHIP STRUCTURED WITH YOUR GROWTH IN MIND 🌱

• Meaningful Projects that contribute toward your team’s goals and have an impact on our success
• Committed Mentors aligned for each intern for guidance, and managers to support you throughout the internship
• Structured Midpoint Evaluations that share real feedback on how you are growing both technically and professionally
• Professional Development and Fun Events to ensure you are learning and enjoying the summer
• Final Project Presentations that showcase your excellent work to our Woven by Toyota community
• Our interns enjoy many benefits, perks, and housing assistance for the duration of the internship
• As your internship wraps up, you will be considered for a return offer* as a full time employee, to start when you graduate
  • *Return offers are limited to candidates who graduate by the end of March 2028, which is an eligibility requirement. If the graduation date is extended beyond this timeframe, the return offer becomes invalid.

💖 Our Commitment 💖

• We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity.
• Any information we receive from you will be used only in the hiring and onboarding process. Please see our privacy notice for more details.