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Jobs · Iowa

IT Intern, Solutions Architecture - AI

American Equity · West Des Moines, IA · 1 mo ago
Volunteer

Company Overview

American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company is a leading provider of annuity solutions designed to help clients protect and grow retirement income. Part of Brookfield Wealth Solutions, we partner with more than 40,000 financial professionals and help fund over half a million retirements nationwide. Recognized by Newsweek as one of America’s Most Trustworthy Companies and named a Top Workplace in Iowa, American Equity fosters a collaborative and purpose‑driven culture where employees are empowered to ignite their passion and help shape the future of financial services. Headquarters are in Des Moines, Iowa, with satellite offices in New York, NY, and a sister company, American National, in Houston, Texas.

General Purpose

The primary role of the Solution Architect – AI Intern is to support ongoing architecture projects through research, solution design, software development, system documentation, and hands‑on programming in a hybrid cloud environment. The intern will focus on designing, developing, and improving AI‑enabled solutions that achieve business objectives, collaborating with technical teammates and business partners in the financial industry to evaluate opportunities, build prototypes, enhance processes, and apply AI capabilities responsibly.

Launchpad Internship Program

The American Equity Launchpad Internship Program is a 10–12 week, in‑person experience based in our downtown Des Moines office. Interns gain hands‑on experience, collaborate across the organization, and contribute to work that drives meaningful business outcomes.

  • Contribute to meaningful projects that deliver real business impact.
  • Receive dedicated mentorship from leaders and colleagues across the organization.
  • Participate in an Intern Hack‑a‑thon focused on solving real business challenges and presenting innovative solutions to company leaders.
  • Develop professional skills through learning sessions, leadership presentations, and networking opportunities.
  • Engage in community service projects, Des Moines Intern Connections events, and social activities with fellow interns.
  • Receive competitive compensation, including a housing stipend and recognition opportunities.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

  • Participates and provides value to ongoing projects of assigned area.
  • Prepares, codes, debugs, and tests programs in a hybrid cloud environment.
  • Creates and maintains various system diagrams and technology roadmaps.
  • Assists with discovery of internal and external customers’ critical business issues and requirements.
  • Ensures applications supporting American Equity are compliant and technically resilient enough to meet established requirements.
  • Analyzes current, legacy, and future workloads to evaluate and implement optimization opportunities and assess system longevity.
  • Conducts research and development around new technology concepts or implementations, making technology recommendations that drive business value.
  • Documents code changes and assists users in developing procedures.
  • Analyzes and demonstrates system solutions.
  • Completes project and support tasks with guidance from mentor and department leader.
  • Interfaces with peers across various departments to collaborate on cross‑functional projects.
  • Performs other related work as assigned.

Education and Experience

Actively pursuing an Associate’s degree or Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or an equivalent field from a two‑year college or technical school.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

  • Knowledge and skills in specific computer software, programming languages, and public cloud services (Python, AWS SDK for Python (Boto3), Amazon Bedrock Runtime and Converse APIs, prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), Bedrock Knowledge Bases, agents and tool use, guardrails, vector databases, REST APIs, AWS Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions, S3, IAM, CloudWatch, Git, automated testing, and CI/CD).
  • Understanding of fundamental architectures and patterns for generative AI solutions on AWS, including RAG, agentic workflows, prompt orchestration, model evaluation, responsible AI and guardrails, vector search, event‑driven and serverless architectures, API‑based integration, observability, security, scalability, and resilient cloud design.
  • Knowledge of software development and architecture principles, practices, methods, and techniques.
  • Strong attention to detail and willingness to learn quickly.
  • Ability to identify problems and solve them in a timely manner.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to present information effectively and interact in group settings.
  • Demonstrated teamwork and effective collaboration.
  • Adaptability to change, delays, and unexpected events.
  • Ability to read, analyze, and interpret documents, manuals, and instructions.
  • Ability to build strong relationships with internal and external partners.
  • Proficiency with the Microsoft Office Suite.

This description covers the major purpose and essential functions of the job. It is not intended to give all details or a step‑by‑step account of each task. Employees may receive other job‑related instructions and be required to perform additional work as requested by their manager. All requirements are subject to modification to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities.

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