Intern, AI & Software Engineering

Aker is seeking a Software & AI Engineer Intern/Co-op to join its AI & Platform Engineering team. This role will contribute to the design, development, and operation of production-grade software, data, and artificial intelligence systems that support intelligent decision-making and automation across the firm.

The position combines full-stack software engineering with applied AI development. Interns and co-op students will work on large language model applications, agentic workflows, internal platforms, data pipelines, APIs, and user-facing tools.

This opportunity is designed for students who want to build and own real systems end-to-end—from raw data ingestion and backend services to retrieval systems, AI orchestration layers, and polished frontend experiences. Team members contribute to live, production-facing initiatives that directly impact firm operations rather than isolated research, classroom exercises, or demonstration projects.

Responsibilities

Software Engineering

• Design, build, test, and maintain production-grade software applications and internal tools.
• Develop backend services, REST APIs, data models, and application integrations.
• Build responsive and intuitive user interfaces using modern frontend frameworks.
• Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code following established software engineering practices.
• Debug application issues, improve performance, and contribute to system reliability.

LLM and Agentic Systems

• Build and enhance LLM-powered applications, including retrieval-augmented generation pipelines, tool-using agents, and structured-output systems.
• Develop agentic workflows that can plan, reason, and execute tasks across internal tools and data sources.
• Integrate models and APIs from providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic.
• Contribute to the evaluation, monitoring, and continuous improvement of AI system accuracy, reliability, and performance.

Data and Retrieval Infrastructure

• Develop scalable pipelines for ingesting, transforming, indexing, and retrieving structured and unstructured data.
• Work with SQL databases, vector databases, embeddings, and retrieval strategies.
• Improve data quality, schema design, validation, and governance practices that support software and AI applications.
• Optimize systems for relevance, accuracy, latency, and operational reliability.

Platforms and Integrations

• Evaluate and integrate software libraries, LLM frameworks, orchestration tools, and third-party services.
• Build reusable platform components that support AI workflows and internal applications.
• Contribute to architectural decisions involving scalability, security, maintainability, and system performance.
• Support deployment, monitoring, and ongoing operation of production-facing systems.

Ownership and Documentation

• Own discrete features, services, or system components from design through implementation, deployment, and iteration.
• Collaborate with engineers and business stakeholders to translate operational needs into technical solutions.
• Document system architecture, technical decisions, experiments, APIs, and operational behavior.
• Participate in code reviews and contribute to shared engineering standards and best practices.

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently in the third or fourth year of a degree program in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
• Familiarity with:
  • REST APIs
  • Backend frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask, or Express
  • Modern frontend frameworks such as React or Next.js
  • Git-based development workflows
  • Software testing, debugging, and profiling techniques
• Solid understanding of:
  • Data structures
  • Algorithms
  • Object-oriented or functional programming concepts
  • Core software engineering principles
• Experience working programmatically with data using:
  • SQL
  • Python libraries such as pandas
  • Relational databases such as MySQL or PostgreSQL
• Exposure to modern development workflows, development environments, and deployment tools.
• Strong problem-solving skills and an interest in understanding how modern software and AI systems work under the hood.
• Ability to communicate clearly, learn quickly, and take ownership of technical work.

Preferred Qualifications

Hands-on experience with one or more of the following is helpful but not required:

• LLM APIs, including OpenAI, Anthropic, or similar providers
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation
• Embeddings and semantic search
• Vector databases such as Chroma, Pinecone, Weaviate, or similar technologies
• Agent frameworks and orchestration tools such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, Pydantic, or custom agent loops
• Data engineering tools such as Airflow, dbt, or Spark
• Cloud infrastructure and containerized deployment
• Docker and Linux environments such as Ubuntu
• Automated testing and continuous integration
• MLOps, model evaluation, benchmarking, observability, and AI system reliability

Company

Aker originates, invests in, and operates businesses across the real estate ecosystem, compounding capital through a disciplined, system-led operating platform.

Aker assembles high-performing teams and invests in exceptional individuals who are passionate about using technology, data, and operations to create value for customers, businesses, and the broader community.

Compensation CA$70,000 – CA$100,000 / year

Salary is prorated for the duration of internship.