Internship NOKIA Bell Labs Autonomous Patch Management in the UNEXT Era

Our Business Group is a leader in wireless mobility networks and associated services. With more than 3.500 patent families essential for 5G we have a strong 5G portfolio and are a front runner in open and virtualized radio access networks (O-RAN and vRAN). 

In an age of mounting cyber risk, threat actors often exploit trust—be they insiders, or targeted phishing attacks that bypass human defences. As vulnerabilities are published and weaponized faster than ever, manual patch coordination across stakeholders becomes a serious bottleneck: slow negotiation, varied responsibilities, and long test cycles leave exploitable windows. Traditional patching tools often assume trusted insiders or secure hardware anchors—assumptions that adversaries can defeat in shared-cloud or zero-trust contexts.

Bell Labs’ UNEXT initiative is forging a new frontier of fully autonomous, self-governing networks, where every network element is a self-contained, cooperative agent. Within this vision, we extend our blockchain / state-machine-replication framework for patch and audit workflows: every patch decision, audit record, and state change is enforced by consensus among distributed, verifiable nodes—resilient to insider manipulation, accelerating adaptation, and embedding zero-trust discipline into system architecture.

We are seeking an intern to push this architecture toward true byzantine resiliency in the UNEXT environment. You will work on enabling autonomous agents to propose, vet, and apply patches without human intervention, integrating AI-based detection and orchestration into consensus-based control.

• Design and prototype mechanisms for autonomous patch lifecycle management (proposal, consensus, deployment, rollback) in a decentralized setting.
• Explore smart-contract / consensus protocols to encode patching policies and enforce them automatically.
• Integrate AI/ML models for vulnerability detection, prediction, and decision-making into the patch architecture.
• Conduct security, performance, and trust analyses on the resulting system in a UNEXT-style network (distributed, multi-domain).
• Collaborate with Bell Labs teams to embed your work into the broader UNEXT research stack. 

Eligibility & Conditions

•  Duration: 6 months, full time
• Location: In person, in France (Bell Labs / Nokia R&D site of Massy)
• Language of work: English
• Enrolment requirement: Must be currently enrolled in a university degree program (Master’s or PhD)
• Start date: November/December 2025

Candidate Profile

•  Academic background in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Distributed Systems, Networks, or related fields
• Interest or experience in blockchain / DLT, consensus protocols, autonomous / agent-based systems, or AI for security / orchestration
• Strong programming skills (e.g. Python, Go, Rust, or similar)
• Familiarity with secure systems, threat modelling, or formal methods is a plus
• Self-driven, research-minded, comfortable with pushing boundaries in a collaborative environment

Join us to pioneer autonomous resilience in next-generation networks: where infrastructure not only detects and defends, but learns, adapts, and heals itself.

About Nokia

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About the Business Group
The Strategy and Technology organization drives Nokia’s future innovation by identifying value-creation opportunities, setting a unified company vision, and developing coherent business, technology, and architecture strategies. It establishes a research foundation for new products and solutions while providing critical infrastructure to support secure and effective execution across all Nokia business units.
Nokia Bell Labs, the world-renowned industrial research arm of Nokia has pioneered breakthrough foundational technologies over the past 100 years like the transistor, laser, Unix, and solar cell - shaping modern communications, computing and connectivity. Today, it drives innovation in AI, quantum computing, 6G, and space communications, bridging groundbreaking research to real-world applications with meaningful impact on society. With ten Nobel Prizes and five Turing Awards, Nokia Bell Labs continues to define the future of technology.

Our recruitment process
We act inclusively and respect the uniqueness of people. Our employment decisions are made regardless of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law. We are committed to a culture of inclusion built upon our core value of respect.
If you’re interested in this role but don’t meet every listed requirement, we still encourage you to apply. Unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences enrich our teams, and you may be just the right candidate for this or another opportunity.
The length of the recruitment process may vary depending on the specific role's requirements. We strive to ensure a smooth and inclusive experience for all candidates. Discover more about the recruitment process at Nokia.