After co-op, this student is stepping into a full-time role at AWS upon graduation
Working as a software engineer at Amazon Web Services, Shubh Thorat’s use of artificial intelligence left a lasting impression.
The front-end team at Amazon Web Services that fourth-year Northeastern University student Shubh Thorat was working with on co-op needed a tool to handle large-scale code and codebase changes.
So Thorat developed an AI-driven internal application that could help automate complex workflows across large codebases, especially tasks that require significant manual effort.
The computer science major spent months developing the AI-driven migration system last year and it proved to be a success. So successful, in fact, that not only is it still being used today, but the achievement landed him a full-time role at AWS that he will assume after graduation later this month.
“The goal was to make these processes more efficient and scalable by leveraging AI to assist with code transformations, integrations and overall system coordination,” he said. “This allowed teams to move faster and focus more on higher-level design and decision-making rather than repetitive tasks.”
Thorat, who will relocate to New York City and start the new role at AWS in May, said he was encouraged to use his skills on the co-op to his full abilities.
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“My mentor (at AWS) always told me one thing, I think that’s also how he operates, where he was like: ‘I don’t want you to do some project which won’t be used after you leave. I want it to be something so relevant that tomorrow we can take this from you and we can make it into a full-fledged thing and we can use it internally,’” said Thorat.
Khang Ho, a software engineer at AWS, acted as Thorat’s mentor. He said Thorat stuck out among his peers as a problem solver, especially as it related to AI.
“Personally, with AI growing at such a rapid pace, I see problem-solving skills for engineers becoming more important than ever before while AI will start to excel at coding,” Ho said in a text. “Shubh showed very strong forward-looking problem-solving skills.”
One of the biggest challenges he faced at AWS was the scale of the systems and the heavy integration of AI in the workflows.
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Initially overwhelmed, Thorat leveraged AI to explore codebases, understand system behavior and bring him up to speed.
“Combined with guidance from my mentor and team, this allowed me to ramp up quickly and contribute meaningfully to a complex, production-level project,” Thorat said.
Thorat also used AI to land the co-op role at AWS, which he described as a top tech company. He used university resources such as AI tools like Claude to tailor his job applications, execute strategic Northeastern networking and gain a leg up in the competitive job market.
Before landing the co-op at AWS, Thorat used AI for other experiential opportunities. He built an AI-powered scheduling app in a college hackathon, then secured an opportunity at PwC in Mumbai, where he developed a flight analytics tool.
The experiential learning program and AI emphasis at Northeastern provided abilities that allowed him to thrive at AWS. He learned not just technical skills but also an understanding of how to use AI effectively as part of a development workflow.
“Northeastern’s co-op program played a key role in preparing me for AWS by giving me real-world experience working on production systems and collaborating in teams,” he said. “Academically, I gained exposure to AI concepts, system design and hands-on experimentation.”
