Job Posting Title:

WDI Research & Development Intern - Multimodal LLM, Summer 2026

Req ID:

10143525

Job Description:

About the Role & Program

As part of The Walt Disney Company, Disney Research builds upon a rich legacy of innovation and technological leadership in the entertainment industry that continues to this day. Disney Research as part of Walt Disney Imagineering works actively in the field of AI and multimodal human-computer interaction to help create immersive experiences that capture the imagination and engage our guests in new ways.

We are seeking a motivated and passionate intern to join our dynamic research team. In this role, you will assist in developing and implementing novel multimodal methods to better streamline our existing processes. You will participate in the design, prototyping, and evaluation of these systems, enhancing our workflows, and enable creative storytelling in our experiences. Our goal is to design novel and immersive experiences by leveraging the latest in speech, vision, and language technologies.   

Our work environment is fast-paced and prototype-driven: we are constantly looking for the thing we can build that will give us the most insight into our biggest unknowns. A Research & Development intern position generally runs three to four months, although exceptions are made when necessary. 

What You Will Do 

• Perform experiments to benchmark the accuracy and latency of different models. 

• Helping with implementation of the algorithms in a real-time inference system 

• Identify additional research papers and models to align with project goals 

• Engage in team brainstorms and troubleshooting 

  

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Python/ C++ experience for quick prototyping of algorithms 

• Exposure to Docker and generally comfortable with containers  

• Exposure to popular deep learning model finetuning and inference methods for multimodal large-language models (MLLMs). 

• Comfortable with PyTorch or other deep learning libraries for training/ finetuning models using open-source code. 

• Prior experience working on dialog systems or other conversational interfaces and related real-time computing problems. 

  

Preferred Qualifications 

• Prior experience with building streaming inference systems using pretrained models. 

• Familiarity with audio, vision and language foundation models  

• Familiarity with full-duplex speech language models.

• Familiarity with Instruction tuning Multimodal LLMs 

• Exposure to building Agentic AI architectures using LLMs

Required Education

Currently enrolled as a Junior or higher attending an accredited college/university, earning a degree in Computer engineering, Computer science,

Management Information Systems, Information Technology or related field.  

Eligibility Requirements & Program Information 

• Be at least 18 years of age 

• Possess unrestricted work authorization 

• Have not completed one year of continual employment on a Disney internship or Disney College Program 

Additional Information 

Candidates for this opportunity MUST meet all of the below requirements: 

• Able to have a consistent, reliable work schedule throughout the internship 

• The approximate dates of this internship are May/June 2026 through August/September 2026 

• Able to provide own housing for the duration internship program​ in the Glendale, CA area

• Must have reliable transportation to/from work

The pay rate for this role in Glendale, CA or Orlando, FL is $42 per hour for undergraduate level and $47 per hour for graduate level. Select benefits may be provided as part of the compensation package, such as medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered. To learn more about our benefits visit: https://jobs.disneycareers.com/benefits.

Job Posting Segment:

WDI R&D and Tech Studio

Job Posting Primary Business:

R&D and Tech Studio (WDI)

Primary Job Posting Category:

Technology Intern

Employment Type:

Full time

Primary City, State, Region, Postal Code:

Glendale, CA, USA

Alternate City, State, Region, Postal Code:

Date Posted:

2026-02-26