The Massachusetts Port Authority is Going Above and Beyond for your career. We are a dynamic organization that connects people and businesses to the global community by air, land, and sea. Our employees are essential in moving planes, cargo and cruise ships safely, efficiently and sustainably. We are an economic engine, managing real estate assets where people live, work, and play. Together, the properties we own and operate generate $20 billion for the region’s economy.
As the digital heartbeat of our organization, the Information Technology (IT) Department fuels the seamless operation of Massport. Driven by our commitment to excellence, we harness the power of technology to solve real-world challenges and enable the organization to achieve its business goals with exceptional efficiency. Our team embraces development and diversity, constantly seeking new opportunities for innovation and growth, to help shape the future of our agency and set new standards for excellence.
The AI Engineering Intern supports Massport’s AI & Innovation team in rapidly designing, building, and testing prototypes that apply artificial intelligence, software development, and emerging technologies to real operational challenges across aviation, maritime, and enterprise environments.
This position is intended for a highly curious and technically motivated student or early-career engineer who enjoys building and experimenting with new technology. The intern will work alongside software developers, solution architects, designers, and business stakeholders to transform ideas into functional proofs-of-concept using modern AI models, open-source technologies, cloud platforms, APIs, and AI-assisted development tools.
The position emphasizes rapid experimentation and prototyping. Successful candidates should be comfortable learning new frameworks quickly, leveraging existing open-source projects, using AI-powered development environments, and independently exploring technical approaches while receiving guidance from senior members of the team.
ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
AI Prototyping & Development
- Assist in designing and building functional AI prototypes, internal tools, automations, and proofs-of-concept addressing Massport business and operational challenges.
- Develop applications and scripts primarily using Python and modern software-development frameworks.
- Use AI-powered development tools and IDEs such as Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or comparable technologies to accelerate development, debugging, testing, and documentation.
- Explore and adapt open-source projects, libraries, models, and frameworks to rapidly evaluate new technical capabilities.
- Build simple web applications, APIs, scripts, and backend services that demonstrate new ideas and workflows.
Participate in rapid development cycles where prototypes are built, demonstrated, evaluated, and improved based on user feedback.
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Generative AI & Model Development
- Develop prototypes utilizing commercial frontier models and locally hosted or open-source language models.
- Assist in building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications that connect AI models with documents, databases, APIs, and enterprise information.
- Gain hands-on experience with technologies including:
- Large Language Models (LLMs)
- Small Language Models (SLMs)
- Open-source models
- Embeddings
- Vector databases
- Semantic search
- Prompt engineering
- Tool/function calling
- AI agents and automated workflows
- Evaluate when different model types are appropriate based on capability, speed, privacy, infrastructure requirements, and cost.
Assist with testing AI systems for accuracy, reliability, usability, and expected behavior.
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Open-Source & Emerging Technology
- Research emerging AI technologies, open-source repositories, models, developer frameworks, and tools that may accelerate Massport projects.
- Review and understand existing GitHub projects and modify or integrate open-source code for prototype development.
- Experiment with new AI frameworks and rapidly determine whether they provide value for a specific use case.
- Document technical findings and demonstrate promising technologies to other members of the AI & Innovation team.
Participate in internal innovation activities, technical demonstrations, workshops, and proof-of-concept development.
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Cloud, APIs & Development Tools
- Assist in developing and testing applications using cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, or Amazon Web Services.
- Develop and consume REST APIs and other system integrations.
- Use Git and GitHub for source control, collaboration, code review, and documentation.
- Gain experience with development environments including Linux, containers, Docker, cloud services, and modern deployment workflows.
Follow Massport development, cybersecurity, data-handling, and source-control standards.
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Team Collaboration
- Work closely with software developers, solution architects, UI/UX designers, and Massport business stakeholders.
- Participate in brainstorming, technical design, code review, testing, and product demonstrations.
- Clearly document prototypes, experiments, dependencies, setup instructions, and lessons learned.
- Present working prototypes and technical findings to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Seek feedback, experiment with alternative approaches, and continuously improve technical skills.
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SECONDARY JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
- Assist with testing, debugging, documentation, and maintenance of applications developed by the AI & Innovation team.
- Support internal hackathons, innovation workshops, demonstrations, and technical research.
- Assist with evaluating new AI models, development tools, open-source projects, and emerging technologies.
Perform other duties as required.
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JOB REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS
Education
- Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
Students with strong independent technical projects, open-source contributions, hackathon experience, or demonstrated software-development ability are strongly encouraged to apply.
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Experience
- Coursework, personal projects, internships, research, hackathons, or other demonstrated experience developing software using Python.
- Exposure to generative AI, Large Language Models, RAG, machine learning, or AI application development.
- Experience building personal or academic software projects and a demonstrated interest in experimenting with emerging technology.
Prior professional software-development experience is not required.
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UNIQUE EXPERTISE / TECHNICAL SKILLS
- Working knowledge of Python required.
- Familiarity with Git, GitHub, APIs, and basic software-development practices.
- Familiarity with generative AI concepts, including LLMs, prompts, embeddings, RAG, and AI agents.
- Interest in and familiarity with both:
- Frontier/cloud-hosted AI models
- Local and open-source AI models
- Ability to research, understand, and adapt open-source software projects.
- Familiarity with AI-powered development environments such as Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, or comparable tools strongly preferred.
- Basic knowledge of Linux environments preferred.
- Exposure to Azure, Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Docker, databases, or vector databases is preferred but not required.
- Strong curiosity, problem-solving ability, and willingness to independently learn unfamiliar technologies.
- Ability to rapidly move from an idea to a functional prototype.
- Ability to communicate technical concepts and document work clearly.
Ability to pass Massport security clearance and obtain a Massport security badge as required.
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Working Conditions
- Environmental Parameters: Ability to work in an office environment and travel to Massport facilities as needed. Opportunities may include observing technology and operations within airport, maritime, transportation, and other operational environments.
Physical Demands: Ability to use computers and technical equipment for extended periods and communicate effectively with project teams and stakeholders.
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Work Schedule
- Work schedule will be established based on the internship program and academic schedule.
- This position may include a combination of onsite and remote work, with routine onsite participation required based on project needs.
