AI Intern, UPSIDE Foods
Summer 2026, 16 Week Internship
$25 USD per hour
3 days a week in office (Emeryville, CA)
Cell-cultured meat producer
Be an early applicant
Cell-cultured meat producer
201-500 employees
Be an early applicant
$25 USD per hour
3 days a week in office (Emeryville, CA)
201-500 employees
Company mission
To make meat a force for good in the world.
Role
Who you are
- Proficiency in ML and Generative AI models, particularly time-series neural networks, hybrid modeling, and/or LLM agents for scientific research
- Strong coding skills in Python and SQL, with PyTorch experience; dashboard visualization skills are desired but not required
- Demonstrated experience in building AI/ML integrations, including using API’s, Lambda (or equivalent) and pipelines / other transport & transform methodologies
- Ability to gather requirements and translate them into technical solutions, and to integrate AI solutions with existing infrastructure
- Familiarity with bioprocessing and cell biology concepts
- Preference for recent graduates or those doing a Master’s program in AI, computer science, or data science
- Required to be on-site 3-days a week at our facility near Berkeley, CA
What the job involves
- At UPSIDE Foods, we’re turning the promise of cultivated meat into a delicious, nutritious reality, and we’re using AI to do it, from faster R&D to scaled manufacturing and commercial
- As an AI Intern within the Enterprise Intelligence team, you’ll join a tight‑knit group of data scientists and IT & software developers who partner with our sci/tech teams to use advanced computing to make meat
- Your work will advance our AI portfolio and become central to the worldwide scale of cultivated meat, contributing to a sustainable global food system
- This AI Internship is a chance to deliver full life-cycle AI deployments, from stakeholder design to shipping new services
- You’ll start with data exploration and white‑boarding use‑cases with stakeholders
- You might mine time-series data for hidden predictors, or engineer robust pipelines in Python and SQL, or prototype neural networks in PyTorch
- Expect to juggle API integrations, Lambda‑style micro‑services, and data‑engineering touchpoints as you weave LLM‑powered chat, search, and automation features directly into existing UPSIDE infrastructure
- You’ll partner with biologists to ensure your features honor metabolic reality, iterate with manufacturing engineers to translate raw sensor streams in algorithms and push models across scales, and ship crisp visualizations that make complex kinetics intuitive for non‑experts
- Collaborate with stakeholders to envision and design AI-first workflows and AI agents that are teammates for UPSIDErs
- Explore our R&D and MFG data landscape in search of predictive data and insights, and develop custom data pipelines where needed
- Design and implement AI/ML workflows from data preprocessing to prediction, applicable across bioreactor scales and species
- Integrate AI solutions within organizational tools (e.g., Slack, Jupyter) and data sources, and leverage dashboards or lower-tech solutions when appropriate
- Work closely with IT and Data teammates to ensure infrastructure support
- This sixteen week internship will give you a front‑row seat to how AI integrates with mammalian and avian cell biology, and by the end, you’ll have deployed three or more applications that drive meaningful value and enable the future of food
- Who you’ll work with:
- Our Enterprise Intelligence team, who has instrumented our manufacturing and R&D data, steward our data lake, and design models
- Bioprocess and cellular‑biology engineers and manufacturing staff who will translate model outputs and visualizations into real‑world operations and interventions that boost cell growth, flavor, and yield
- Cross‑functional R&D partners in analytics, product, and sensory science who rely on your insights to shape the next generation of cultivated meat
- Leaders across the whole organization who are eager for LLM‑driven data exploration, literature or document review, and workflow acceleration
Our take
Upside Food, previously knowns as Memphis Meats, is actively addressing the growing societal demand for ethical meat production through the cultivation of its own meat products. The company's approach not only ensures delicious offerings but also contributes to improving animal welfare and reducing environmental impact in the food industry.
With a wide range of cultivated meat products that closely mimic their traditional counterparts, Upside Food is capitalizing on the rapidly expanding market for meat alternatives, which is experiencing a remarkable annual growth rate of approximately 36%. Although North America stands as the fastest-growing demographic in this domain, the global market for ethical meat is projected to surpass $8B by 2025.
By catering to the preferences of meat enthusiasts with diverse cultivated meat options, Upside Food effectively minimizes its carbon footprint compared to conventional meat producers. Tightening regulations led to staff reductions in 2024, yet Upside is expanding its product range, bringing two new cultivated chicken foods to the market later that year.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
38% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Apr 2022
$400m
SERIES C
Jan 2020
$161m
SERIES B
Total funding: $581.1m
Company benefits
- Stock options for all full-time incoming team members!
- 90-100% employer-paid healthcare premiums for team members (medical [including HSA and FSA], dental, and vision)
- Pet insurance for your furry family members!
- Unlimited PTO
- DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) Council and People Engagement Programs
- Company-sponsored learning & development opportunities
Company HQ
Southwest Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Leadership
Uma Valeti, MD
(CEO & Founder)Cardiovascular Doctor by training. Professor at the University of Minnesota and Stanford before founding Upside Foods in 2016.
Salary benchmarks
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