by Interstride
Brian Prather, Head of Talent Acquisition at Flawless AI, talks about exciting internship and full-time opportunities and career pathways for international students at the “Most talked about AI company in Hollywood.”
From this interview, you will learn about:
- Flawless AI’s culture and opportunities for students and new grads
- Career pathways for international students in the US and the UK
- How CPT, OPT, STEM OPT, and other visa pathways are handled
What is Flawless AI?
Flawless is a Generative AI startup shattering the boundaries of traditional filmmaking with our groundbreaking suite of Gen AI film editing tools. Our mission is to empower filmmakers with cutting-edge technology that allows creativity without compromise, expands storytelling possibilities, and delivers unparalleled visual and emotional experiences.
Why is Flawless AI a great place to work?
At Flawless, you have the opportunity to work with world-renowned scientists, as well as industry experts in VFX and post-production for film, which in itself is an exciting journey.
We are building AI tools to protect and enhance the human tradition of storytelling from the perspective of an industry insider allowing us to develop innovative generative AI tools directly from the source. We foster growth, ownership, impact, and the pursuit of the best possible solutions. We value open communication, where every team member has a voice and the power to make a difference.
Tell us about your internship program
Our Global Internship Program hires in research science, applied science, and deep learning engineering year-round. This program is primarily focused on students pursuing degrees in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Generative AI, and Deep Learning. We typically hire 3-6 months in advance for internships of 3-6 month rotations.
Our Research Science Interns are typically PhD students, however, we are open to graduate students with project and publication experience in these state-of-the-art research topics. Applied Science Interns are typically graduate students, though we are open to exemplary undergraduate candidates as well.
Internship projects have ranged from Research Dataset Benchmarks, Talking Head Synthesis, Neural Rendering and Tracking – In the Wild, Multimodal Synthesis, and Multi-View Reconstruction. We will soon have opportunities for Production and Editing Interns in our LA studio.
We have been able to convert over 60% of our interns to full-time employees. Our goal is to not just be the “Most talked about AI company in Hollywood”, but also the “Most talked about AI company in Academia” as well.
How does Flawless hire and support candidates and employees on visas?
Flawless hires for talent. Many times that requires the need to sponsor students or graduates in a myriad of ways. We offer support and sponsorship for the entire process in everything from CPT/OPT, H1 transfers, H1 lottery applications, J1, TN, and O1 visas. We also provide similar support for existing employees who are looking to apply for their green card, so pending performance, we are often able to support that process and cost as well.
In short, we do what we can to make this typically stress-inducing process as seamless as possible.
Flawless AI also has an office in London. Do you support transferring employees from the US to the UK and vice versa?
Absolutely, in cases where there is a business need, and performance is positive we are able to transfer employees from the US to the UK under a Skilled Worker visa, or from the UK to the US under an L1 visa.
What are the benefits of being transparent about hiring international students? Why does Flawless AI do it, when so many companies don’t?
The key to attracting and hiring top talent in fields as small and competitive as AI/ML, deep learning, and engineering starts with clear, transparent communication. Talent is evaluating us, just as much as we are evaluating them. Successful hiring is about being open, honest, fair, and impartial. This results in not just higher conversion rates from offer to hire, but higher conversion rates from internship to full-time roles, and ultimately higher retention rates.
What do you look for in interns and full-time candidates?
We look for world-class talent and evaluate experience, skill, ability, and potential.
When hiring in Research Science, we are focused on state-of-the-art research in computer vision, generative AI, and deep learning at top conferences like CVPR, and SIGGRAPH.
When hiring in Applied Science, we are targeting a research-to-production background, so industry experience is far more relevant where we can see successful deployment in generative AI projects. Strong coding skills in Python, Pytorch, and exposure to Machine Learning and Deep Learning projects are valued.
What we do is push the limits of technology, so when applying ensuring you have experience in areas like Neural Rendering, Computer Vision, or Generative Audio is vital to the success of getting selected.
From a human standpoint, we’re looking for kind, smart, and curious minds.
What advice do you have for international students who want to work at Flawless AI?
Attend the main conferences (like SIGGRAPH, NeurlPs, and CVPR ), look out for us at booths, career fairs, tech talks at university campuses, and of course, on platforms like Interstride. Never rely on just an application, be proactive and reach out to the recruiting team consistently.
Building relationships is crucial. We have hired several Scientists and Engineers at Flawless where it was a 4-9 month relationship of check-ins and updates before we had a business need for their skill set again.
Having projects and coursework in areas like linear algebra, machine learning, deep learning, data structures, algorithms and research analysis in generative AI are often required to have the ability to perform duties in these roles. Experience with internships at companies investing in generative AI is also valued.
Our internships are project-based and constantly growing, so we may have something new every other month. Ensure you match your research and publication work to what you are applying for, and think about what you are looking for long-term, as we love to convert interns to full-time hires.
