AI Data Engineering Intern (BS)

At Lilly, the work is demanding because patients are waiting. We unite caring with discovery to help make life better for people around the world, knowing that every decision, every detail, and every day matters. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our over 50,000 employees around the globe take on complex challenges to discover and deliver life-changing medicines, strengthen how health is understood and managed, and support the communities we serve. This is hard, urgent, selfless work—but it’s work worth doing. If you’re driven by purpose and ready to bring your best to work that truly matters for patients, we invite you to join us. 

Organization Overview

At Lilly, the work is demanding because patients are waiting. We unite caring with discovery to help make life better for people around the world, knowing that every decision, every detail, and every day matters. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our over 50,000 employees around the globe take on complex challenges to discover and deliver life-changing medicines, strengthen how health is understood and managed, and support the communities we serve. This is hard, urgent, selfless work—but it’s work worth doing. If you’re driven by purpose and ready to bring your best to work that truly matters for patients, we invite you to join us.

Functional Overview

You will join the Clinical and Development area within Lilly’s Advanced Intelligence & Research organization, where we build and deliver advanced AI and data science solutions that accelerate clinical development and improve decision-making across the drug development lifecycle.

Data engineering is the foundation of that work. Our models and AI applications are only as good as the data beneath them, and the data that matters most in clinical development is genuinely hard: standardized clinical trial data, real-world and observational healthcare data, and large volumes of unstructured data, all of it governed and sensitive. Data engineers on our team build the pipelines, data models, and platform capabilities that make this data reliable, discoverable, and ready for analytics and AI at scale.

As an intern, you will be assigned a scoped project with real business impact and will work alongside experienced data and machine learning engineers. The work will draw on a common set of capabilities: designing and building pipelines that ingest, transform, and validate large and often messy datasets; modeling data so it can be used for analytics and machine learning; writing production-quality Python and SQL; applying engineering practices such as version control, testing, code review, and documentation; and partnering with data scientists, machine learning engineers, and clinical collaborators to understand what the data needs to support.

You might work with clinical trial data in industry-standard formats such as CDISC SDTM and ADaM, real-world and observational healthcare data, unstructured documents such as protocols and study reports, or the feature and serving layers that feed models and AI applications.

Lilly internships run for 12 continuous weeks over the summer. Each intern actively contributes to the organization, builds a comprehensive understanding of the pharmaceutical industry, and takes part in professional development and social events throughout the summer. At the conclusion of the internship, each intern presents their project highlights, findings, recommendations, and accomplishments to senior leaders and stakeholders.

As part of Lilly's commitment to innovation, interns will have the opportunity to build fluency with AI tools used across the business. We expect interns to approach these tools with curiosity, apply critical thinking to AI-assisted work, and always prioritize accuracy, confidentiality, and ethical standards in how they use them.

Basic Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in and pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Statistics, Mathematics, or a closely related technical field, and will have completed your Junior year by June 2027.
• Hands-on experience programming in Python and writing SQL.
• Foundational understanding of data structures, relational databases, and how data moves through a system.
• Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization or visas for this role, including but not limited to F-1 CPT, F-1 OPT, F-1 STEM OPT, J-1, H-1B, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, or L-1.

Additional Functional Job Skills & Preference

• Familiarity with a cloud data platform such as Databricks, including notebooks, lakehouse and Delta concepts, or SQL warehouses.
• Strong SQL skills, including joins, aggregation, and reasoning about query performance.
• Exposure to a major cloud provider, preferably AWS (for example S3, Glue, Lambda).
• Familiarity with workflow orchestration concepts and tools such as Databricks pipelines.
• Experience with Git-based version control, code review, and automated testing or CI/CD; familiarity with Docker is a plus.
• Coursework or project experience in data warehousing, distributed systems, database internals, or data quality and validation.
• Interest in healthcare, clinical, or life sciences data, or prior experience working with sensitive or regulated data.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical work to non-technical collaborators.
• A demonstrated drive to learn, innovate, and challenge yourself for the benefit of patients.
• Prior experience using AI tools (e.g., generative AI platforms, automation tools, or AI-assisted research/analytics tools) in an academic, project, or work setting.Experience with Spark, PySpark or other distributed data processing workflows.

Additional Information

This is a hands-on data engineering internship. Interns are expected to take ownership of a scoped project, write production-quality code, collaborate closely with data scientists, machine learning engineers, and clinical partners, and deliver a final presentation of their results to senior leaders and stakeholders.

• Lilly arranges various intern activities including sporting events, dinners, lunch and learns, volunteer activities etc. to provide opportunities for socializing, professional development, and learning more about Lilly.
• Interns will receive 1 week of paid time off during the Lilly summer shut-down (July 5th – July 9th)
• 1:1 mentoring from an experienced professional in the function
• Interns will receive a competitive salary and free parking at their work site, as well as access to Lilly’s LIFE fitness center, bike garage, and many other discounts

• If the intern's job position requires a move from another location, Lilly will provide subsidized housing

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form (https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly is proud to be an EEO Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia (AMECA), Black Employees at Lilly (BE@Lilly), Chinese Culture Network (CCN), EnAble, Evolve, Lilly Indian Network (LIN), Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), Pride (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN) and Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL).

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is

$65,600 (Bachelors) annually

Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance). In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly’s compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees.

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