AI Engineer (Part-Time)

About us

We are a nonpartisan research and think tank organization working at the intersection of policy, governance, and emerging technology. Our mission is to strengthen democratic systems and policy decision-making by leveraging modern tools - including artificial intelligence - to enhance transparency, understanding, and collaboration in the policy process.

We are working on developing an LLM-powered assistant for the policy space, designed to help policymakers, researchers, and analysts to navigate complex information environments and support more informed, balanced, and accessible policy discussions.

Position Overview

We are seeking a Master’s or PhD student with strong technical skills to support the development and technical implementation of our LLM-based assistant. This role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to a high-impact project at the intersection of AI, governance, and public policy, working with an interdisciplinary team of world class researchers, engineers, and policy experts.

The position will begin as a volunteer research and development role, with the potential to transition into a paid consulting position in the next 1-3 months as the project scales. The position will require signing an NDA due to the nature of the application domain.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with the technical and research leadership to implement the backend infrastructure for an LLM-based assistant.
• Support integration of large language models (via APIs and open-source frameworks such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face) with data pipelines and retrieval systems.
• Develop and maintain RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) components, prompt management systems, and modular architecture for resource datasets.
• Work with structured and unstructured data (e.g., Wikipedia, analyst reports, research papers)
• Assist in evaluation, testing, and documentation of model performance and system reliability.

Qualifications

Required:

• Enrolled in or recently completed a Master’s or PhD program in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field.
• Proficiency in Python
• Familiarity with LLM integration (e.g., OpenAI API, LangChain, LlamaIndex, and similar frameworks).
• Understanding of vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, FAISS, Chroma) and RAG architectures.
• Excellent written communication and documentation skills.
• Interest in public policy, governance, or the social impacts of AI.

Desirable:

• Experience working on AI applications or prototypes.
• Familiarity with frontend integration (React, Streamlit, FastAPI, Flask, Django.)
• Coursework or interest in public policy, political science, or data ethics.
• Experience working in collaborative research or nonprofit environments.

What We Offer

• The opportunity to shape an innovative project at the intersection of AI and policy.
• Mentorship from a multidisciplinary advisory board of AI researchers, policy scholars, and technologists.
• Flexible, remote-friendly work environment.
• A pathway to transition into a paid consulting role as the project grows and funding is secured.
• Visibility and authorship opportunities in research output, prototypes, potentially public briefings.