AI Engineer Intern

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for. 

About the Role

The New AI Products and Platforms mission is a central hub for new, high-ambition AI opportunities and services at The Times. We’re seeking a creative and motivated Engineering Intern to help prototype and validate AI product concepts that could evolve into production-ready solutions. You’ll work with a team of engineers, designers, product and project managers, data scientists, and newsroom stakeholders to help invent the next generation of responsible AI products at The Times.

About Our Program

• Duration: 10 weeks, starting June 1, 2026. 

• Compensation: $40.00 per hour. 

• Hours: 35 hours per week.

• Location: Hybrid, based in New York.

Responsibilities:

• Generate prototypes of AI-powered experiences to help readers understand and navigate our journalism, amplifying our human expertise and journalistic excellence.

• Design, build, and iterate on prototypes from concept through evaluation, capturing learnings and de-risking for potential production handoff.

• Implement workflow orchestration and back-end services to support data processing, evaluation, and integrations with demo UIs and newsroom systems.

• Contribute to responsible AI practices, including privacy, bias, safety, and transparency considerations in prototypes and experiments.

• Participate in demos, design critiques, and research shares, connecting explorations to NAPP’s platform strategy and product bets.

• Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.

Basic Qualifications:

• A portfolio of school, personal, or professional projects relevant to AI products or platforms, demonstrating curiosity, rigor, and the ability to ship prototypes.

• Solid grasp of web development and deploying apps to the cloud; familiarity with API design and observability for prototype services.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Hands-on experience using LLMs in applications (prompting, function calling, evaluation, guardrails) or with workflow orchestration and back-end services for data processing applications.

• Experience with content retrieval or RAG pipelines. 

• Experience with evaluation harnesses for LLM applications (e.g., unit tests for prompts, rubric-based scoring, golden datasets).

• Interest in journalism and building innovative, responsible AI experiences for readers.

• Enthusiasm for The New York Times and its products and experiences.

For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs. 

For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.

The New York Times Company is committed to being the world’s best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all  backgrounds to apply.

We are  an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of an individual's sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics. 

The Company encourages those with criminal histories to apply, and will consider their applications in a manner consistent with applicable "Fair Chance" laws, including but not limited to the NYC Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act.