AI Developer Internship (Academic Credit)

Build a foundation in applied AI through USSP's structured, education-first internship. This is an **unpaid internship offered for academic credit** in partnership with your university — designed as a supervised learning experience, not a staffing role. You'll learn alongside experienced AI/ML engineers through a guided curriculum, hands-on exercises, and mentorship, gaining real-world context for the AI and machine learning concepts you're studying in school.

**Program Eligibility** - You must be currently enrolled in an accredited degree program and able to receive academic credit for the internship - A faculty sponsor or school internship coordinator must approve the placement - The internship follows your school's required hours and learning objectives, and is supervised throughout

**What You'll Learn** - How modern LLM applications are designed, built, and evaluated (OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, open-source models) - Core concepts behind RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), prompt engineering, and vector search — through guided exercises and sandbox projects - Fundamentals of data preparation, model evaluation, and experiment design - Engineering best practices: version control with Git, code reviews, and technical documentation - Professional skills: working in an Agile team, presenting findings, and giving/receiving feedback

**Learning Activities (Supervised & Instructional)** - Complete a structured curriculum and skill-building exercises under engineer mentorship - Work through sandbox and training projects designed for learning (not client production deliverables) - Shadow engineers, attend team ceremonies, and participate in code-review sessions to observe professional practice - Present what you've learned in regular reviews with your mentor

**Requirements** - Currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI/ML, or a related field - Foundational programming skills in Python (and a willingness to learn TypeScript/JavaScript) - Basic understanding of machine learning concepts and/or large language models - Curiosity, eagerness to learn, and the ability to take feedback - Good written and verbal communication skills

**Nice to Have** - Coursework or personal projects involving LLMs, prompt engineering, or ML models - Exposure to AI frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex) or APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Hugging Face) - Familiarity with REST APIs, SQL, or cloud platforms (AWS, Azure) - A GitHub portfolio, hackathon participation, or open-source contributions

**What We Offer** - One-on-one mentorship from senior AI/ML engineers focused on your learning goals - Access to USSP's comprehensive 12-module AI & Machine Learning training program - Exposure to how AI is applied across industries: government, healthcare, Fortune 500, and startups - Flexible remote/hybrid arrangements that fit your class schedule - A completed-internship evaluation to support your academic-credit requirements - Collaborative, innovation-driven culture since 2003

*This is an unpaid internship offered solely for academic credit. It is structured as an educational experience under the U.S. Department of Labor "primary beneficiary" standard: interns do not displace paid employees and are not guaranteed a paid position upon completion.*