Year-Round Intern - AI Research & Engineering

The OCC•Chicago, IL

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

OCC is seeking year-round interns for its AI Research & Engineering (AIRE) team. This 12-month program, running from January through December, is open to undergraduate and graduate students actively enrolled in college or university. Interns will work up to 20 hours per week during the school year and up to 40 hours per week during the summer, with a 1,000-hour cap. The role operates in a hybrid work environment, with overtime not permitted. The AIRE team is responsible for enterprise AI solution implementation and governance, evaluating emerging AI capabilities, building secure platforms, and delivering AI-driven solutions. The intern will gain hands-on experience in designing, prototyping, and evaluating agentic AI solutions built on frontier platforms, such as Anthropic's Claude. Contributions may include building and testing AI agent workflows, supporting governance and risk-review processes, or assessing vendor/platform capabilities. This internship offers exposure to how a leading financial market infrastructure company operationalizes generative and agentic AI at enterprise scale.

Requirements

Rising senior or second-year graduate student, graduating December 2027 or May/August 2028.
Desired Majors: Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics / Mathematics, Engineering, Physics, Machine Learning, Financial Engineering / Financial Mathematics, Economics.
Solid programming skills in Python (most common) and/or SQL, Java, C++, or R.
Coursework or project experience in machine learning, AI, or data science.
Exposure to AI/ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or Scikit-learn.
Interest or experience in generative AI — LLMs, prompt engineering, or agentic systems.
Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
Experience with data pipelines or data engineering tools (Spark, Databricks, etc.).
Strong analytical thinking and ability to communicate technical work clearly.
Curiosity, initiative (independent projects, research, hackathons), and a strong foundation for quick learning.
Strong academic performance (GPA 3.5+ preferred).
Demonstrated initiative — independent projects, research, hackathons, or startup experience beyond coursework.
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Comfort working cross-functionally with business, risk, and technology teams.
Strong problem-solving skills and a self-directed approach to learning new tools/technologies.
Familiarity with Agile/collaborative development practices (version control, code reviews, sprint-based work).

Nice To Haves

Interest in financial services, market infrastructure, or regulated industries.

Responsibilities

Build and iterate on AI agent workflows for a specific OCC functional area, working alongside engineers who own these systems in production.
Integrate agentic solutions with internal data sources and APIs, gaining experience with MCP/tool-use patterns for connecting models to enterprise systems.
Design test cases and evaluation frameworks to measure agent accuracy, reliability, and safety.
Understand compliance and risk considerations for deploying AI in a regulated financial environment.
Document agent architectures, prompt designs, and lessons learned, contributing to the team's internal playbooks.
Work directly with business stakeholders to gather requirements and validate that the agentic solution solves a real operational problem.