Undergraduate and Graduate - Artificial Intelligence Specialty Intern

WORK OPTION: The NBA currently provides eligible employees the option of working remotely one day per week.

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Position Summary:

The 2027 NBA Summer Internship is a 10-week program that runs from June 7 – August 13, 2027. The program gives participants the opportunity to learn about the business of basketball, develop critical career skills, and contribute to meaningful projects across a range of departments in the NBA and its affiliate leagues (WNBA & G League). In addition to on-the-job experience, interns are invited to participate in a broad array of professional development programming as well as community and social experiences.    

Interns should reflect excellent academic standing and have strong written and verbal communication skills. Additionally, we look for candidates who possess leadership skills as demonstrated through relevant extracurricular or community activities.

More information on the Summer Internship Program experience can be found here.  

Role Overview:

The Artificial Intelligence Project Intern will join a specialized cohort focused on building AI products and processes that improve the NBA’s league and commercial operations. As part of a core project team managed by NBA AI and technology leaders, this intern will support the NBA in using AI, including agentic solutions, across fan experience, basketball operations, player health and enterprise applications. The goal is to transform workflows, improve efficiency and raise the quality of work. Interns contribute directly to that effort.

This role is designed for students who demonstrate strong interest and experience in technology, engineering, artificial intelligence, business consulting, and data-driven problem solving.

This role requires interns to demonstrate a foundational mastery of AI technologies in driving project execution and achieving business objectives.

Major priority areas will include the application of Artificial Intelligence to fan experience, basketball operations, player health, and other business areas as needed.

Major Responsibilities:

As an AI Project Intern, you will:

• Identify areas where AI can improve business processes and enterprise applications across the organization

• Develop and test AI-enabled prototypes that address operational needs across multiple business and basketball functions

• Support end-to-end development cycles, including problem definition, data acquisition, model creation, evaluation, and stakeholder demo

• Translate business needs into AI/ML solution frameworks under guidance from AI and data governance leaders

• Work within a project team to maintain quality, alignment, and responsible AI practices

• Evaluate and determine new AI use case implementation for current workflows or emerging initiatives

• Document methodologies, workflows, and findings to ensure transferability and scale

Projects are confirmed each spring based on league priorities. 2027 projects are expected to fall within five areas:

• Enterprise Applications: for example, building agentic and AI solutions that redesign workflows across league office functions such as Finance, Communications, Events, HR, Legal and IT. 

• Basketball Operations & Research: for example, building visual outputs for basketball, media and fans and supporting analytics for officiating, scheduling and game operations.

• Player Health: for example, building tools that help medical and performance staff support league-wide biomechanics and player-health data programs.

• Fan Experience: for example, AI-powered personalization, recommendations and assistants across NBA platforms. 

• Data Intelligence & Platform Analytics: for example, building data pipelines, retrieval and search over NBA data, and AI-assisted reporting and dashboards. 

Required Education & Professional Experience:

• Currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s (rising Seniors only) or graduate level degree in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Statistics, or related field

• Relevant coursework, projects, or experience with AI tools or ML techniques

• Prior internship or hands-on project experience in technology or applied AI preferred

• Strong academic standing and demonstrated leadership through extracurricular or community experience, consistent with NBA internship criteria

Technical Skills & Knowledge Attributes:

Required Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a bachelor's degree (rising seniors) or a graduate degree in AI, Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Statistics or a related field
• Working knowledge of Python and SQL
• Has built at least one AI-powered app or automation, through coursework, personal projects, research or hackathons
• Understands how large language models work, including their limits
• Familiar with APIs, Git and software testing, and able to explain and check code written with AI coding assistants
• Handles data and access securely
• Strong communication skills, including explaining technical work to non-technical audiences
• Works well in a team and can manage several priorities at once

Preferred Experience

• Building AI agents or multi-step workflows, including tool calling, MCP or reusable skills
• Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and search over source material
• AI coding and development tools, such as Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Amazon Bedrock or Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Testing and measuring AI quality, such as accuracy, speed and cost
• Product design and building user interfaces for AI tools
• For basketball or player health projects: computer vision, 3D or game engines (e.g., Unreal Engine), or sensor data
• A prior internship or project in technology or applied AI

Salary Range:

Undergraduate: $32/hr

Graduate: $40/hr

Job Posting Title:

Summer Intern

Employees and/or eligible dependents may be eligible to participate in the following Company sponsored employee benefit programs: medical; short-term disability; mental health coaching/therapy; and sick time.

Eligibility Note: Not all positions are eligible for these benefits; eligibility may vary by role.

We Consider Applicants For All Positions On The Basis Of Merit, Qualifications And Business Needs, And Without Regard To Race, Color, National Origin, Religion, Sex, Gender Identity, Age, Disability, Alienage Or Citizenship Status, Ancestry, Marital Status, Creed, Genetic Predisposition Or Carrier Status, Sexual Orientation, Veteran Status, Familial Status, Status As A Victim Of Domestic Violence Or Any Other Status Or Characteristic Protected By Applicable Federal, State, Or Local Law.

About the NBA

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a global sports and media organization with the mission to inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. Built around five professional sports leagues: the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, the NBA has established a major international presence with games and programming available in 214 countries and territories in more than 50 languages, and merchandise for sale in more than 200 countries and territories on all seven continents. NBA rosters at the start of the 2025-26 season featured a record 135 international players from a record-tying 43 countries. The NBA's digital assets include NBA TV, NBA.com, the NBA App and NBA League Pass. The NBA has created one of the largest social media communities in the world, with more than 2.5 billion likes and followers globally across all leagues, team and player platforms. The NBA's Tap to Watch provides seamless access to local, national and global live game telecasts via the NBA App, NBA.com, third-party digital platforms and NBA partner platforms. NBA Cares, the NBA's global social impact platform, drives change on issues facing fans and communities in the areas of health and wellness, civic engagement, social justice and inclusion, and sustainability.