Blue Ridge Bank is partnering with the Virginia Bankers Association to offer summer internships for students interested in gaining real experience in the banking industry. The intern will explore how artificial intelligence can enhance credit risk analysis processes and contribute to business outcomes through hands-on projects and collaboration with various teams.
Responsibilities
Research state-of-the-art AI/ML techniques applicable to industry and company research on operating performance and outlook
Identify pain points in current credit analysis workflows that AI could address and make simpler, faster, and smarter
Evaluate tools currently available to the organization and assess practical applicability to specific use cases
Experiment with techniques such as: Natural Language Processing (NLP) for analyzing borrower documents, financial statements, or news signals
Generative AI for report automation and data augmentation
Analyze financial, behavioral, and alternative data sources to identify predictive signals
Perform feature engineering to extract meaningful variables from raw data
Ensure data quality, integrity, and bias awareness throughout analysis
Propose AI use cases that can improve: Credit decisioning speed and accuracy, Early warning systems for portfolio deterioration, Explainability of risk decisions (XAI), Regulatory and Credit Policy compliance automation (e.g., model documentation)
Prepare presentations and reports summarizing findings for senior stakeholders
Work closely with credit, compliance teams and technology teams as relevant to the project
Participate in team meetings, sprint reviews, and knowledge-sharing sessions
Commitment to understanding the overall concept of the company, including the brand, customer, product goals, and all other aspects of service
Propose a defined project during the early weeks of the internship and obtain supervisor approval before proceeding
Accept designated, business-focus projects to research, propose ideas and solutions, and present final projects during the internship
Complete a capstone project and present it to bank leaders and external participants
Engages with customers or clients and provides service and/or sales under direct supervision
Provide suggestions to management for improving customer service and internal processes
Learn and become proficient in internal software systems
Attends all required in-person VBA hosted training and events including but not limited to, Intern Orientation: May 28 and the Mid-Summer meet up on July 7, 2026
Other tasks as assigned
Create value for the bank and its employees
Qualification
Required
Must be 18 years of age
Work onsite for 40 hours a week, May 26– August 7
Currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in business, finance, economics, information systems or a related field
Familiarity with AI tools such as Microsoft, ChatGPT or similar with a practical understanding of their capabilities and limitation
Ability to map and evaluate business processes
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present findings clearly to a non-technical audience
Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
Self directed and able to define and manage a project through to a deliverable
Interest in financial servicing's, banking or business operations
Knowledge of with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Demonstrated interest or coursework in AI, technology, or data driven decision making
Any training related to AI tools and their business applications will be considered
Prior Internship, coursework or work experience in financial services, banking or a business environment is valued
Preferred
Exposure to generative AI concepts or tools is a plus; the ability to apply them in a business context matters more than technical depth
Benefits
Blue Ridge Bank provides a wide range of financial services with an emphasis on quality, ethics, and superb customer relations.
