Solutions Engineering Intern (New York)

Whale Tech (WhaleAI), New York, NY (hybrid, on-site required for store deployments) Part-time during the semester (15 to 20 hrs/week) or full-time 6-month placement starting January 2027. Paid. Conversion to a full-time Solutions Architect role is the intended outcome for the right person.

About Whale and the role

Whale builds AI for physical retail and consumer businesses. Our platform covers the full loop: SpaceSight (space intelligence on existing store cameras), Echo (voice AI that captures staff and customer conversations and scores service quality), Lume (AI content distribution), Alivia (enterprise agent platform), Harbor (brand knowledge hub), with Stardust and Novus as the cloud-edge and AI governance infrastructure underneath. In the US we lead with SpaceSight and Echo, and most of what you touch will be those two.

We are building the US solutions function from the ground up. You would be the second technical person on it, reporting directly to the Head of Solution Architecture. This is not a shadowing internship. You will work inside live enterprise proofs of concept, including a multi-store deployment with a global beauty retailer across New York, Chicago and the Bay Area, and you will own real deliverables from week one.

Scope and workload

This is a full-load role. Roughly a quarter of the time is on-site deployment support, a third is POC data validation and readout preparation, and the rest is split between demo environment upkeep and sales call support. The part-time version keeps the data and demo work and drops the field component.

What you will do

Deployment and field work. Support installations at retail stores, including evening windows in Manhattan. On the vision side that means NVRs, edge AI devices, RTSP stream checks, camera coverage and zone configuration. On the voice side that means Echo device setup, badge and audio capture testing, account provisioning and confirming that conversations are being captured and scored correctly. Work with client IT on network readiness, firewall allowlisting and device connectivity. Document what was installed, where, and what changed.

POC data and validation. Reconcile platform output (traffic, dwell, reception rate, zone conversion, and for Echo, conversation coverage and SOP scores) against the client's own data: door counters, POS transactions, labor hours, service records. Build and maintain the spreadsheets and notebooks that turn raw exports into readout-ready numbers. Track data quality issues, device outages and store layout or promo changes that affect measurement.

Demo environment and technical readiness. Keep the US demo environment, sample data and standard demo flows current for both SpaceSight and Echo. Test new features and configuration before they go in front of a client. Maintain the technical reference material the sales team relies on: feature list, hardware compatibility, security and data-flow answers.

Sales support. Join discovery and technical calls, take structured notes and turn them into follow-up actions. Help answer security questionnaires and RFP technical sections from our existing library. Run a demo segment when the lead SA is unavailable.

What we are looking for

Currently enrolled in, or recently graduated from, a degree in computer science, data science, engineering, information systems or a related field. Comfortable with Python and spreadsheets for data cleaning and reconciliation. Able to read a network diagram and understand what an IP address, a port and a firewall rule are. Curious about how physical systems actually work: cameras, NVRs, edge devices, audio hardware, store networks. Able to travel to retail sites in NYC, including some evenings. Clear written communicator who documents accurately and briefly. Comfortable in a small, fast, ambiguous environment where the process does not exist yet and you help build it.

Nice to have: exposure to computer vision, speech or audio processing, video streaming (RTSP, ONVIF), SQL, retail or operations analytics, or a customer-facing role. Mandarin is a plus for working with our engineering team in China, not a requirement.

What you will get

Direct ownership of technical work inside named enterprise deployments, hands-on time with edge AI and voice hardware in production retail environments, exposure to the full enterprise sales cycle from discovery to POC readout, and a real path to a full-time Solutions Architect role on a team being built now.