Intern, Information Tech

Born from a tradition of journalism and deeply engaged in innovative digital ventures, The Chronicle is powered by an essential mission: to inform, empower, and connect the people and institutions that work to improve society. Today, The Chronicle serves the higher-education community through the industry-leading news and information resource: The Chronicle of Higher Education.
     

The AI/LLM Development Intern will join the engineering team to accelerate projects involving Generative AI, Large Language Models, and Agentic AI frameworks. The intern will work closely with engineering and editorial teams on the continuing development of an AI/LLM driven solution to identify patterns and trends in higher ed data sets.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• LLM Application Development: Build, test, and deploy applications using frameworks like LangChain, LangGraph, or CrewAI to automate tasks.
• RAG Pipelines: Develop and optimize Retrieval-Augmented Generation systems to connect LLMs with internal, proprietary, or external data sources.
• Model Fine-Tuning & Evaluation: Assist in fine-tuning state-of-the-art LLMs, running experiments, and evaluating model performance using metrics for helpfulness and safety.
• Performance Optimization: Implement techniques such as quantization (INT8/FP8), KV cache optimization, or flash attention to optimize inference latency and throughput
• Tool-Use & Function Calling: Develop and configure "skills" or "plugins" that allow AI agents to interact directly with internal APIs, databases, and GTM tools (e.g., Clay, Salesforce, Slack) to perform tasks such as updating account plans or triggering renewal sequences
• End-to-End Automation: Identify manual bottlenecks in the customer lifecycle and architect end-to-end automated solutions that integrate disparate data sources (Product, CRM, Support) into a unified execution layer

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS:

• Current pursuit of a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or related field.
• Strong proficiency in Python and experience with AI orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, Semantic Kernel, or AutoGen)

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Experience working with RESTful APIs and modern data structures (JSON, SQL, NoSQL)

• Experience with vector databases (ChromaDB, Pinecone, Milvus).
• Familiarity with deep learning libraries like PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX. Hands-on experience or academic projects working with OpenAI APIs, Hugging Face Transformers, or open-source LLMs (Llama, BERT).
• Familiarity with enterprise integrations – connection of LLMs to existing backend systems.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS & WORK ENVIRONMENT:

• Ability to perform work indoors in climate-controlled private work area with minimal noise, performing primarily sedentary work with limited physical exertion and lifting of up to 30 lbs.
• Ability to routinely perform work on computer for an average of 4-8 hours per day, when necessary.

Ability to work extended hours whenever required or requested by management.