AI Contract Internship Program 2026 – Engineering & Research Tracks
About DEZAI
DEZAI is an AI-first technology startup focused on building next-generation artificial intelligence solutions, including Large Language Models (LLMs), AI-powered productivity platforms, enterprise AI systems, and intelligent software. We are assembling our founding AI team and are looking for passionate individuals who want to work on real-world AI products while learning from industry-standard technologies and workflows.
This is a 6-month, performance-based contract internship designed for students and early-career professionals who are eager to gain practical experience in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Software Engineering, Cloud Infrastructure, and AI Research.
Internship Tracks
We are hiring across the following specialized tracks:
- AI Research Intern (3 Openings)
- LLM Engineering Intern (3 Openings)
- Data Engineering Intern (2 Openings)
- AI Trainer / Data Annotation Intern (3–5 Openings)
- Backend Engineering Intern (2 Openings)
- MLOps & Infrastructure Intern (2 Openings)
- Cloud & DevOps Intern (1 Opening)
- AI Evaluation Intern (1 Opening)
- AI Security Intern (1 Opening)
- AI Product & Research Intern (1 Opening)
Total Openings: 19–21 Positions
Who We're Looking For
We are looking for highly motivated individuals who are passionate about technology, innovation, and artificial intelligence.
Applicants should ideally be:
- Currently pursuing a **Bachelor's ** in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Electronics, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field.
- Recent graduates looking to gain practical industry experience.
- Self-taught developers with a strong portfolio, GitHub profile, or relevant project experience are also encouraged to apply.
We're not looking for candidates who know everything, we're looking for people who are curious, proactive, eager to learn, and excited to solve challenging problems.
General Requirements
Successful candidates should possess:
- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
- Good communication and collaboration skills.
- Basic proficiency with Git/GitHub.
- Familiarity with Python or other relevant programming languages depending on the internship track.
- Ability to learn new technologies quickly and work independently.
- Passion for Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies.
- A willingness to contribute to real products in a fast-paced startup environment.
What You'll Gain
- Hands-on experience working on real AI products and production-grade software.
- Mentorship from experienced engineers and researchers.
- Exposure to modern AI frameworks, cloud infrastructure, and software development practices.
- Opportunity to collaborate with a multidisciplinary engineering team.
- Build an industry-ready technical portfolio through meaningful project contributions.
- Networking opportunities within an AI-focused startup.
Compensation & Benefits
This is a 6-month, performance-based contract internship.
The internship is generally unpaid, with the primary benefits including:
- Certificate of Completion upon successful completion of the internship.
- Performance-based Letter of Recommendation (LoR) for outstanding interns.
- Mentorship and hands-on industry experience.
- Real-world project experience using modern AI technologies.
- Opportunity to build a professional portfolio.
Performance Incentive
Although this internship is primarily unpaid, interns who demonstrate exceptional technical ability, ownership, initiative, professionalism, consistent contributions, and outstanding overall performance may be considered for a performance-based incentive ranging from ₹3,000 to ₹10,000 at the end of the internship.
Performance incentives are awarded solely at DEZAI's discretion based on individual contributions and project impact and are not guaranteed.
Exceptional interns may also be offered future paid internships, contract positions, freelance opportunities, or full-time roles with DEZAI based on business requirements and performance.
Internship Details
Company: DEZAI
Employment Type: Contract Internship
Internship Duration: 6 Months
Work Mode: Remote
Hiring: 19–21 Interns across 10 specialized AI and Engineering tracks.
Application Review: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until all positions are filled. Internship Tracks, Responsibilities & Technical Requirements
1. AI Research Intern (3 Openings)
Role Overview
Work alongside the AI Research team to explore, develop, and evaluate cutting-edge Large Language Models (LLMs). You will conduct experiments, reproduce research papers, and contribute to advancing DEZAI's AI capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Research and implement state-of-the-art AI and LLM techniques.
- Reproduce and benchmark published research papers.
- Assist with prompt engineering, instruction tuning, RLHF, and AI alignment research.
- Design experiments, evaluate model performance, and document findings.
- Collaborate with engineering teams to translate research into production-ready solutions.
Required Skills & Technologies
- Strong proficiency in Python
- Good understanding of Machine Learning and Deep Learning
- Experience with PyTorch
- Familiarity with Hugging Face Transformers
- Experience with NumPy, Pandas, and Jupyter Notebook
- Version control using Git/GitHub
- Basic Linux command-line knowledge
- Ability to read and understand research papers
Preferred
- RLHF, PEFT, LoRA/QLoRA
- Weights & Biases (W&B)
- Transformer architecture knowledge
2. LLM Engineering Intern (3 Openings)
Role Overview
Develop, fine-tune, optimize, and deploy Large Language Models using modern open-source AI frameworks. You will work closely with research and backend teams to build scalable AI applications.
Responsibilities
- Fine-tune and optimize open-source LLMs.
- Build inference and model-serving pipelines.
- Integrate AI models into production environments.
- Improve model efficiency, latency, and inference performance.
- Participate in testing, debugging, and deployment.
Required Skills & Technologies
- Python
- PyTorch
- Hugging Face Transformers
- Tokenization & Embeddings
- FastAPI
- Git/GitHub
- Linux
- Docker fundamentals
Preferred
- DeepSpeed
- vLLM
- TensorRT-LLM
- ONNX Runtime
- CUDA
- LoRA/QLoRA
3. Data Engineering Intern (2 Openings)
Role Overview
Build reliable data pipelines and prepare high-quality datasets that power AI model training and evaluation.
Responsibilities
- Develop ETL pipelines for structured and unstructured datasets.
- Clean, validate, and preprocess training data.
- Maintain dataset quality and documentation.
- Integrate external APIs and data sources.
- Collaborate with AI teams to deliver production-ready datasets.
Required Skills & Technologies
- Python
- SQL
- Pandas
- NumPy
- JSON, CSV, Parquet
- REST APIs
- Git/GitHub
Preferred
- Apache Spark
- Airflow
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage
4. AI Trainer / Data Annotation Intern (3–5 Openings)
Role Overview
Help improve the quality, reasoning, and accuracy of DEZAI's AI models by creating and reviewing high-quality training data.
Responsibilities
- Write instruction-following prompts.
- Evaluate and rank AI-generated responses.
- Annotate datasets for supervised fine-tuning.
- Identify hallucinations, factual inaccuracies, and unsafe responses.
- Maintain high annotation quality standards.
Required Skills & Technologies
- Excellent written English
- Strong analytical and reasoning skills
- Prompt writing and evaluation
- Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets
- High attention to detail
Preferred
- Experience using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or similar AI tools
- Understanding of Generative AI concepts
Programming knowledge is not required.
5. Backend Engineering Intern (2 Openings)
Role Overview
Develop scalable backend services and APIs that power DEZAI's AI applications and platform infrastructure.
Responsibilities
- Design and develop REST APIs.
- Integrate AI models into backend systems.
- Optimize backend performance and reliability.
- Work with databases and caching systems.
- Collaborate with frontend and AI engineering teams.
Required Skills & Technologies
- Python
- FastAPI
- REST APIs
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- Docker
- Git/GitHub
- Linux
Preferred
- Celery
- RabbitMQ
- JWT Authentication
- Nginx
- WebSockets
6. MLOps & Infrastructure Intern (2 Openings)
Role Overview
Support the deployment, monitoring, and scaling of machine learning models and AI infrastructure.
Responsibilities
- Deploy ML models into production.
- Build CI/CD pipelines.
- Manage Docker containers and Kubernetes clusters.
- Monitor AI infrastructure and model performance.
- Improve deployment reliability and scalability.
Required Skills & Technologies
- Python
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Linux
- Bash
- Git/GitHub
- GitHub Actions
Preferred
- MLflow
- Kubeflow
- Helm
- NVIDIA CUDA
- Prometheus
- Grafana
7. Cloud & DevOps Intern (1 Opening)
Role Overview
Assist in building secure, scalable, and reliable cloud infrastructure supporting DEZAI's AI platform.
Responsibilities
- Deploy and maintain cloud infrastructure.
- Configure networking and virtual environments.
- Automate deployments and system monitoring.
- Support cloud security and infrastructure optimization.
Required Skills & Technologies
- AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Linux
- Bash
- Git
- Networking fundamentals
Preferred
- Terraform
- Ansible
- Nginx
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Cloud Monitoring tools
8. AI Evaluation Intern (1 Opening)
Role Overview
Measure and improve the quality, accuracy, and reliability of AI models through systematic testing and benchmarking.
Responsibilities
- Evaluate LLM performance.
- Create benchmark datasets.
- Test hallucinations and reasoning accuracy.
- Develop automated evaluation workflows.
- Generate performance reports and recommendations.
Required Skills & Technologies
- Python
- Pandas
- NumPy
- Prompt Engineering
- Data Analysis
- Git
Preferred
- OpenAI Evals
- LangSmith
- DeepEval
- RAG evaluation
- Statistical analysis
9. AI Security Intern (1 Opening)
Role Overview
Research and strengthen the security of AI systems, infrastructure, and model deployments.
Responsibilities
- Assess AI security risks.
- Perform prompt injection and jailbreak testing.
- Support secure deployment practices.
- Assist with vulnerability assessments and security documentation.
Required Skills & Technologies
- Python
- Linux
- Networking fundamentals
- OWASP Top 10
- Git/GitHub
Preferred
- AI Red Teaming
- Prompt Injection Testing
- Burp Suite
- Wireshark
- Cloud Security fundamentals
10. AI Product & Research Intern (1 Opening)
Role Overview
Support the planning, research, and execution of AI products by working closely with engineering, design, and leadership teams.
Responsibilities
- Conduct product and market research.
- Analyze competitors and emerging AI trends.
- Assist in defining product requirements.
- Prepare documentation and product reports.
- Coordinate cross-functional initiatives.
Required Skills & Technologies
- Strong research and analytical skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Microsoft Office or Google Workspace
- Basic Git/GitHub knowledge
- Organizational and project management skills
Preferred
- Figma
- Notion
- Jira
- Agile/Scrum methodologies
- Understanding of LLMs, AI products, and prompt engineering
Pay: ₹3,000.00 - ₹10,000.00 per month
Work Location: Remote
