Software Engineering Intern

Protagonist • Washington, DC

8h • Hybrid

About The Position

Protagonist is seeking a Software Engineering Intern to join its small, collaborative engineering team and contribute to the development of the Narrative Analytics® platform, which analyzes online conversations to uncover beliefs and narratives shaping how people think and act. The intern will write code for a product used by the company’s teams and clients, working across backend development, user-facing applications, data pipelines, and AI-powered features. They will work alongside experienced engineers, data scientists, and analysts on practical technical challenges and gain exposure to modern development tools and technologies.

The role is based in Washington, DC, requires at least 20 hours per week throughout the semester, and involves working in the office 1–2 days per week, with remote opportunities. The internship pays $20.00 per hour or the applicable local minimum wage, whichever is higher. The position is not fully remote and is starting immediately.

Requirements

• Authorized to work in the United States.
• Must meet applicable U.S. Government contract eligibility requirements, including any citizenship or security clearance requirements associated with assigned work.
• Currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering.
• Available to work a minimum of 20 hours per week throughout the semester.
• Able to work in the Washington, D.C. office 1–2 days per week; the position is not fully remote.
• Comfortable with Python.
• Experience using Git beyond a class assignment.
• Some exposure to web development (any framework), SQL, or JavaScript.
• Curiosity about natural language processing, machine learning, or large language models.

Nice To Haves

• A class or side project using Django, React, or TypeScript.
• Experience with Pandas or other data work in Python.
• Experience calling an LLM API and building something with it.
• Use of AI coding tools and ability to recognize when their output is incorrect.
• Experience with Docker or any cloud provider.

Responsibilities

• Build API endpoints in Python using Django REST Framework and React/TypeScript components that use them.
• Write steps in Metaflow data pipelines to ingest documents, enrich them with large language models, and index them in OpenSearch.
• Help build and evaluate LLM features, including prompt templates, structured outputs, and scorecards for assessing prompt performance.
• Gain hands-on experience with AWS services, including S3, Bedrock, and EKS, to support development, troubleshooting, and deployment.
• Write tests, upgrade dependencies, fix issues, and help track down production bugs.
• Collaborate with data scientists and analysts to understand platform usage and how engineering work supports analytical workflows.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: No Education Listed