PhD Intern, Software Engineer - Interaction Design (2027)

The job

LIVE Employer public job feed (private-sector employer) Source: the employer's public careers feed · Data: listed 2026-11-04

Job description

Figma is growing our team of passionate creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all. Figma’s platform helps teams bring ideas to life—whether you're brainstorming, creating a prototype, translating designs into code, or iterating with AI. From idea to product, Figma empowers teams to streamline workflows, move faster, and work together in real time from anywhere in the world. If you're excited to shape the future of design and collaboration, join us!

Figma’s Interaction Design team helps designers express how interactive experiences behave from a single interaction, to a multi-state flow, to a series of complex animated transitions. We’re interested in making complex interactive behavior easier to author, refine and understand. This team investigates and identifies new ways to visualize and manage state, animations, interactions, and prototypes through click-through and code-backed experiences.

As a PhD intern, you’ll combine HCI research with hands-on-engineering to help define the next generation of interactive experience design tooling. You’ll work closely with a mentor and teammates and get to learn, contribute, and grow in a supportive environment, while applying your research background to drive real-world impact.

This 12 or 16-week internship for Summer 2027 will be based out of our San Francisco or New York hub.

What you’ll do at Figma:

• Be fully embedded onto a Figma team working on problems that intersect with your research area
• Drive projects that apply research insights to meaningful product challenges
• Collaborate with engineers, PMs, designers, and researchers to scope and execute your work
• Develop, validate, and document solutions from prototypes to production-ready systems
• Share your expertise through presentations, design reviews, and cross-functional collaboration
• Deliver a project with real impact by the end of your internship

We’d love to hear from you if you have:

• Current enrollment as a 4th or 5th year senior PhD student pursuing a PhD in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related field
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex research concepts into practical, scalable solutions
• A track record of rigorous problem-solving through academic or applied research
• Proficiency in at least one general purpose coding language

While it’s not required, it’s an added plus if you also have:

• A creative portfolio of work consisting of time-based media, animation, game development, digital illustration, or another creative field.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated experience collaborating across functions
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to write, debug, and optimize code
• Applied engineering skills via industry experience, prior internships or similar experience
• First-author publications in top academic conferences related to our team’s focus areas

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go. We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Pay Transparency Disclosure

This internship role is based in either Figma’s San Francisco or New York hub offices, and has the hourly base pay rate stated below.  Figma also offers interns a housing stipend and travel reimbursement. Figma’s compensation and benefits are subject to change and may be modified in the future.

At Figma we celebrate and support our differences. We know employing a team rich in diverse thoughts, experiences, and opinions allows our employees, our product and our community to flourish. Figma is an equal opportunity workplace - we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity/expression, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

We will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to apply for a role, participate in the interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment. If you require accommodation, please reach out to accommodations-ext@figma.com. These modifications enable an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity not only to get a job, but successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities. 

Examples of accommodations include but are not limited to: 

• Holding interviews in an accessible location
• Enabling closed captioning on video conferencing
• Ensuring all written communication be compatible with screen readers
• Changing the mode or format of interviews 

To ensure the integrity of our hiring process and facilitate a more personal connection, we require all candidates keep their cameras on during video interviews. Additionally, if hired you will be required to attend in person onboarding.

By applying for this job, the candidate acknowledges and agrees that any personal data contained in their application or supporting materials will be processed in accordance with Figma's Candidate Privacy Notice.

Application limits: To help candidates focus on the opportunities most relevant to their skills and experience, Figma limits the number and frequency of applications. These limits apply to all roles:

• Candidates may submit up to 5 applications during any rolling 30-day period.
• Candidates may not reapply to the same role while an application is active or within 90 days of receiving a rejection.

Once the applicable days has passed, candidates are welcome to apply again.

Explore around this job

Field: Technology Sub-niche: Software engineering All jobs at Figma Jobs in New York Jobs in San Francisco, CA • New York, NY New York state guide

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About the role

This is a — role in the Technology field (Software engineering) at Figma.

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How to prepare and behave

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• Read the whole description and match your examples to its requirements; use the same words the posting uses where they are true for you.
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The city

San Francisco, CA • New York, NY is not one of the cities with its own page in our guides, so here is the state: New York.

The state economy in brief

New York is in the Northeast region (Middle Atlantic division) and has 19,852,366 residents (the 4th largest of the 50 states and DC by population), with a median age of 39.8. Its economy produced about $2,561,197 million in the latest four quarters (BEA), 3rd among states and DC, equal to $129,012 per resident.

Jobs and the labour market

The unemployment rate was 4.3% in 2026M09, which is 36th lowest of 51 (1st is the lowest). Employers had job openings equal to 4.1% of employment, 18th highest of 51, a measure of how hard it is to hire. The median wage across all occupations is $59,670 a year ($28.69 an hour), 17% above the national median ($59,670 against $50,980).

What people do and what it pays

The occupations with the most jobs in New York are Home Health and Personal Care Aides (663,140 jobs, median $39,620); Retail Salespersons (238,540 jobs, median $37,720); General and Operations Managers (206,740 jobs, median $130,860); Registered Nurses (205,810 jobs, median $109,440); Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners (195,250 jobs, median $41,640). Among occupations with at least 2,000 jobs, the best paid are Cardiologists (median $492,040); Anesthesiologists (median $445,660); Radiologists (median $441,580). Compared with the nation, the state is most specialised in healthcare support (1.8 times the national share of workers) and legal (1.7 times the national share of workers).

Cost of living, taxes and workplace rules

Prices are above the national average in New York: the regional price parity is 107.9 against 100 for the whole country (47th lowest of 51). Median gross rent is $1,621 a month and the median household income $85,974, so a year of rent equals 22.6% of income; the median home value is $423,800. The state minimum wage is $16.00 (17.00 in NYC, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester) (the higher of state and federal rates applies to most workers). State income tax on wages: Graduated, top rate 10.90%. It is not a right-to-work state, so union contracts can require fees from covered workers. It runs a state paid family and medical leave programme.

People and commuting

22.8% of residents were born abroad and 40.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Among workers, 48.8% drive alone, 21.6% use public transit and 14.9% work from home; 27.4% commute 45 minutes or more.

State guide: New York →

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Career paths

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Cybersecurity (713) Data, analytics and AI (3366) Cloud, IT and infrastructure (1040) Product management (836)

Distances

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The employer

Figma is the employer in this listing. See all its open jobs here →

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What it is like to work at a company (culture, schedules, benefits) is not in the source data, so we do not describe it. Read the description and ask the questions under "How to prepare".

Other open jobs at Figma

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Same sub-niche: Software engineering

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FAQ

What is the PhD Intern, Software Engineer - Interaction Design (2027) job at Figma?

A private-sector role in technology (software engineering) listed 5 days ago. The full description is on this page and on the employer's page.

Where is this job?

San Francisco, CA • New York, NY.

How do I apply?

Use the "View this job and apply on the employer's page" button. AtiveSite does not receive applications.

How much does it pay?

The listing does not publish pay, and we could not match the title to one official occupation.

What is the cost of living there?

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How old is this listing?

It was posted on 2026-11-04 (5 days ago). Jobs older than 90 days are not shown.

Are there similar jobs?

Yes: browse software engineering jobs in New York.

Sources and terms

• Job data: Figma careers page public feed (listing dated 2026-11-04). The job disappears from this site when it disappears from the source.
• Wages and projections: BLS OEWS (May 2025) and Employment Projections 2025–35.
• City and county figures: Census Bureau ACS 2020–2024, BEA, BLS QCEW and LAUS, NASA POWER climatology; distances from Census Gazetteer coordinates.

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Sources

• BLS OEWS (wages and employment by occupation, May 2025)
• BLS Employment Projections 2025–35
• BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
• BLS JOLTS
• BLS State and Metro Area Employment
• Census Bureau American Community Survey (via Census Reporter)
• BEA GDP by state and Regional Price Parities
• IRS 2026 tax adjustments
• U.S. Department of Labor, minimum wage by state
• Tax Foundation state income tax rates 2026
• USAJOBS
• USCIS
• U.S. Department of State, visas
• NASA POWER climatology
• GeoNames / Census Gazetteer (coordinates)