Data Engineering Intern

About the Role

Riot’s Data Engineers build tools and data products that help teams understand and improve the experience of players worldwide. They work across data pipelines, data modeling, data infrastructure, and data quality to make large-scale data useful, reliable, and accessible. As a Data Engineering Intern, you’ll work with data engineers, software engineers, data scientists, analysts, and game or product partners to build and improve data products. You’ll gain exposure to transforming raw data into clean, queryable datasets, designing data models, validating data quality, and supporting data pipelines. You’ll be supported by experienced team members as you learn Riot’s tools, systems, and engineering practices.

Potential Responsibilities

• Collaborate with data engineers, software engineers, data scientists, analysts, and game teams on data-focused projects.
• Transform raw data into clean, documented datasets that can be queried and used by downstream partners.
• Implement small data pipeline, data modeling, or data-quality tasks using established tools, templates, and technical guidance.
• Support the design of relational data models and data products for game, product, or business use cases.
• Help validate data for accuracy, timeliness, completeness, and sustainability.
• Participate in code reviews, technical discussions, team rituals, and project planning.
• Document technical proposals, implementation details, and data definitions clearly.
• Learn how cloud, distributed-processing, and data-pipelining systems support Riot’s games and products.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Graduating in the 2028 calendar year.
• Currently enrolled in a Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or related technical degree program.
• Available to work full-time hours for the 12-week internship duration.
• Comfortable programming in Python or Java.
• Understanding of data structures and algorithms.
• Familiarity with SQL and relational data concepts such as tables, keys, normalization, or indexing.
• Minimum GPA of 2.5.

Desired Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a graduate-level (Master’s or PhD) Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or related technical degree program.
• Experience developing a data pipeline, data model, database project, or data-driven application through coursework, internships, research, or personal projects.
• Familiarity with cloud-computing basics, such as AWS or GCP.
• Experience working with Linux operating systems.
• Understanding of distributed systems, concurrent programming, or distributed data processing.
• Familiarity with tools or frameworks such as Databricks, Spark, Flink, Hive, Kafka, Airflow, Luigi, Docker, Terraform, Kubernetes, Parquet, or Avro.
• Experience with Scala, C++, Golang, or another programming language.
• Familiarity with software development practices such as Git, unit testing, functional testing, or continuous integration and deployment.
• Portfolio, website, GitHub, or other collection of original work.

Work Authorization

• Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States for the duration of the program.
• This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

Perks

• Paid internship.
• Eligibility to participate in the 401(k) plan.
• In-game perks.
• Ability to participate in the Play Fund.
• Intern-focused events.

Compensation

• Hourly rate: USD $53.41 - $69.28 hourly