AI Engineering Intern (Summer 2027)

Bain & Company; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mentorship program

Hands-on project work

Job summary

Bain & Company is offering a 10-week internship with the AIS team to design and develop generative AI applications and agentic solutions for clients. You will work alongside engineers, consultants, and data scientists, gaining hands-on exposure from prototyping to production deployment in a learning-first environment.

You will grow through real project work, frequent feedback, and increasing responsibility.

Qualifications

• Pursuing or recently completed bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD in CS/ML/AI or related field.
• Strong academic performance or demonstrated excellence through projects, internships, or open-source work.
• Proficiency in Python and experience building APIs or services (REST/gRPC).
• Experience building complex, multi-stack GenAI programs from conception to production.
• Exposure to retrieval/search systems and familiarity with data stores.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the design and development of GenAI applications (copilots, automation, decision support).
• Assist in implementing AI pipelines, including RAG, fine-tuning, embedding optimization, and hybrid retrieval.
• Collaborate to build agent capabilities: context management, memory state, orchestration, tool integration.
• Support model experimentation, evaluation design, and production deployment tasks with senior team members.
• Write clean, testable code and contribute to APIs/services through the full SDLC.

Skills

Python

APIs

CI/CD

Version control

ML engineering

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/ML/AI

Tools

Transformers

LLMs

Vector databases

RAG

Job description

We are proud to be consistently recognized as one of the world’s best places to work. We are currently the top ranked consulting firm on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list and have earned the #1 spot a record seven times. Extraordinary teams are at the heart of our business strategy, but these don’t happen by chance. They require intentional focus on bringing together a broad set of backgrounds, cultures, experiences, perspectives, and skills in a supportive and inclusive work environment. We hire people with exceptional talent and create an environment in which every individual can thrive professionally and personally.

ABOUT BAIN AI, INSIGHTS & SOLUTIONS (AIS)

Bain’s AI, Insights & Solutions (AIS) team works with clients to design and deliver AI-powered solutions that create measurable business impact. You’ll operate in multidisciplinary teams alongside Bain consultants, other experts in product, design, architecture and engineering, and client stakeholders, translating ambiguous business problems into robust AI applications that can be piloted, scaled, and adopted.

WHERE YOU’LL FIT WITHIN THE TEAM

Over the course of a 10-week internship, you will contribute to the design and development of generative AI applications and agentic solutions for Bain’s clients. Working alongside experienced engineers, consultants, and data scientists, you will gain hands‑on exposure to the full AI development lifecycle—from early prototyping through to production‑ready deployment. This is a learning‑first role: you will grow through real project work, close mentorship, frequent feedback, and increasing responsibility over time.

Bain offers significant learning and growth opportunities through our apprenticeship model. You will learn by doing, with support from experienced teammates, frequent feedback, and increasing responsibility over time Bain works with clients on board‑level and executive priorities. As an intern, you will build the technical core of transformations and help move solutions from prototype to real adoption. You will have opportunities to collaborate with major AI ecosystem partners through Bain’s partnerships, contributing to real client deployments and shaping how emerging capabilities are applied in enterprise settings

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Contribute to the design and development of GenAI applications (e.g., copilots, workflow automation, decision support) using modern LLM stacks
• Support the implementation of AI pipelines and components, including:
  • Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG)
  • Fine‑tuning and parameter‑efficient tuning
  • Embedding generation and optimization
  • Hybrid retrieval strategies (vector, graph, keyword)
• Assist in implementing tool use, function calling, and orchestration across AI workflows
• Assist in building agent capabilities including context engineering, memory and state management, orchestration, and tool integration
• Support model experimentation, evaluation design, and production deployment tasks alongside senior team members
• Write clean, testable code and contribute to APIs and services through the full SDLC: build, test, deploy, monitor, iterate
• Contribute to evaluation and observability for GenAI systems: regression test suites, automated scoring, and prompt or policy iteration loops
• Gain exposure to responsible AI practices across system design, including:
  • Implementing guardrails, fallbacks, and human‑in‑the‑loop (HITL) workflows
  • Understanding Bain’s Responsible AI standards and supporting alignment in your work
• Contribute to evaluation harnesses and reusable components that scale across client contexts
• Contribute to ML solutions end‑to‑end, including:
  • Data preparation, feature engineering, model selection, and training
  • Validation, testing, and performance analysis
  • Applying appropriate ML methods spanning classical ML and deep learning
  • Developing working knowledge of transformer fundamentals and LLM concepts
• Collaborate with product, engineering, and data science teammates to build well‑structured, reliable AI systems
• Communicate clearly in working sessions, demos, and documentation—with both technical and non‑technical audiences
• Support client discussions and documentation as part of broader engagement teams

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

• 0–2+ years of professional AI / ML engineering experience, or equivalent through internships, research, academic projects, or open‑source contributions
• Currently pursuing or recently completed a bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD in CS, ML, AI, Data Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field; or equivalent early‑career experience
• Strong academic performance or demonstrated excellence through research, projects, internships, competitions, or open‑source contributions
• Proficiency in Python and some experience building APIs or services (e.g., REST/gRPC), or comparable project‑based experience
• Experience building complex, multi‑stack generative AI programs from conception through production
• Exposure to retrieval and search systems (e.g., vector search, hybrid retrieval, reranking) and familiarity with structured and unstructured data stores
• Exposure to agentic patterns (context management, tool integration, orchestration, memory/state handling); hands‑on experience preferred
• Strong engineering practices: testing, code review, version control, CI/CD, and performance profiling
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; interest in applying AI to real‑world business problems in a client‑facing environment

Successful interns may be considered for full‑time offers to begin based on availability / graduation date.

WORKING MODE & TRAVEL

• This role requires in‑person collaboration, and you must be based in (or open to working from) New York or San Francisco
• You’ll need to co‑locate with your team at least three days a week, whether that’s in a Bain office or at a client site, which may require travel