Product Builder Intern

AwardSpring; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 34,000 - 48,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work 3 days/wk

Job summary

AwardSpring in Chicago is seeking a Product Builder Intern for a part-time role on our AI-native product team. You can contribute as an engineer, designer, or product manager, and we’ll shape the work around what you’ve built.

You’ll ship real features using Claude Code or Cursor, work with senior reviewers from day one, learn our codebase and agent workflows, and push back when a spec doesn’t make sense. The role offers three days in the office per week and competitive hourly pay.

Qualifications

• Must be a student or recent graduate.
• Have built something with Claude Code, Cursor, or a comparable tool.
• Curious across disciplines, not just the one on your resume.
• Would rather iterate than wait for perfect direction.

Responsibilities

• Ship real, well-scoped work into a production codebase with actual users.
• Work with agentic tooling from day one, with senior review.
• Learn the codebase and our agent workflows quickly.
• Push back when a spec does not make sense.

Skills

Student or recent graduate

Education

Student or recent graduate

Tools

Claude Code

Cursor

Job description

Careers

Product Builder Intern

• Part-Time
• Chicago, IL
• Product Engineering

$25 - $35 / hour

Who we are

AwardSpring is an established, growing SaaS company that partners with hundreds of colleges, universities, and foundations across the US and Canada to award scholarships and manage their donors. We complete the virtuous cycle of giving, getting, and giving again, on a mature, multi-tenant platform, with a small, focused team.

About This Role

This is one internship open to builders of any stripe: engineering, design, or product management. We are not asking you to pick a lane before you get here. Tell us what you have built and which of the three you want to spend your time on, and we will shape the work around it.

What matters is that you have shipped something real with AI tools. A side project, a class project, something you built because you wanted it to exist. What you made counts for more than where you went to school.

How we work

We’re an AI-native product team. Nearly 100% of the code in our product is AI-generated, and every IC (engineer, PM, designer) ships features end-to-end with agentic tooling. The lines between disciplines are intentionally blurred: PMs ship code, engineers make product calls, designers prototype in production. We hire for fluency in agentic development, not time in any one stack.

If you’ve been building this way on nights and weekends because your day job won't let you (rigid stack, no token budget, "that’s not how we do things here"), this is the place where it’s the actual job.

What you’ll do

• Ship real, well-scoped work into a production codebase with actual users
• Work with agentic tooling from day one, with senior review
• Learn the codebase and our agent workflows quickly
• Push back when a spec does not make sense

Who you are

• Currently a student or a recent graduate
• Have built something with Claude Code, Cursor, or a comparable tool
• Curious across disciplines, not just the one on your resume
• Would rather iterate than wait for perfect direction

What we give you

• Top-tier AI tooling with unlimited token budgets
• Day-one access to the latest models as they ship
• A mature, multi-tenant production codebase with real users and real stakes
• Health, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) match, unlimited PTO, and paid parental leave

Our values

Lead with humanity. Genuine empathy for our team, our customers, and the students and donors they serve. That includes candor, saying the hard thing because you respect the person enough to say it.

Take smart risks. Urgency. Bold, informed bets before the picture is fully clear. Run the experiment instead of winning the debate.

Take pride in the process. Fast is the standard and thoughtfulness is non-negotiable. Eyes on the work you control, not the scoreboard.

Own the results. We measure everything. Accountability runs on data, not vibes, and we can tell the difference between an honest miss and a broken process.

A note on workspace

Hybrid, based in our West Loop / Fulton Market office in Chicago, roughly three days a week.

Equal Opportunity Employer

AwardSpring is an equal opportunity employer and hires without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status. We’re committed to an inclusive, harassment‑free workplace.