AI Developer Intern

Bird Rock Systems•San Diego, CA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

Bird Rock Systems is seeking early-career developers to help build its applied AI practice. This learn-by-building role provides hands-on mentorship from an AI Architect and opportunities to design, build, deploy, and operate modern AI solutions. Interns work alongside another junior developer, experiment, learn from mistakes, and take on increasing responsibility as their capabilities grow. Depending on skills and project needs, the intern may develop software applications and services incorporating LLMs and generative AI, prototype AI solutions and turn them into working applications, work with APIs and structured or unstructured data, and assist with development and DevOps in Azure and/or Google Cloud Platform. The role also offers exposure to collaborative Git and GitHub workflows, deployment, monitoring, troubleshooting, and improvement of AI-enabled applications, as well as real customer and internal projects. This is a hybrid role for candidates based in San Diego or Orange County. The intern must be able to come to the San Diego office at the manager’s discretion and maintain consistent availability during normal weekday business hours. Expected commitment is approximately 10–20 hours per week, with scheduling that can accommodate academic commitments. Expected pay is $25 per hour.

Requirements

Be currently enrolled in the final year of a bachelor’s program, a recent graduate, or have equivalent hands-on experience in computer science, software engineering, data science, or a related technical field.
Have solid programming fundamentals in a language such as Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#, or Java.
Have familiarity with Git and GitHub.
Have a basic understanding of large language models (LLMs) and enthusiasm for building software with them.
Have some exposure to machine learning, model building, data platforms, cloud computing, or AI application development through coursework, personal projects, research, hackathons, or internships.
Be willing to work in Azure and/or GCP, even without extensive prior experience.
Be able to investigate problems, try solutions, ask good questions, and continue making progress when answers are not obvious.
Be based in San Diego or Orange County and have consistent availability during normal weekday business hours.

Nice To Haves

Have built personal AI projects or used an LLM API to create an application beyond a basic chatbot.
Have taught yourself a new framework or API, created a non-required GitHub project, or experimented with models, embeddings, RAG, agents, data pipelines, or cloud services.
Demonstrate curiosity about AI, fast learning, openness to feedback, initiative, ownership, persistence in debugging, and enjoyment of close collaboration.

Responsibilities

Build software applications and services that incorporate LLMs and generative AI.
Prototype AI solutions and develop promising prototypes into working applications.
Work with APIs, structured and unstructured data, and modern AI development frameworks.
Assist with development and DevOps activities in Azure and/or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Use Git and GitHub in a collaborative software development workflow.
Learn and contribute to deploying, monitoring, troubleshooting, and improving AI-enabled applications.
Collaborate closely with another junior developer on problem-solving and learning.
Participate in customer and internal projects as capabilities grow.