Core Engineering Intern

About the Role

Core Engineering is Etched's special projects team, responsible for identifying critical gaps and building solutions from scratch, often in days. This role is for engineers who thrive on ambiguity, move fast without sacrificing quality, and are energized by solving immediate, important problems. It offers the opportunity to ship 0-1 production-level code weekly and gain experience akin to a whiteboard for future founders.

This role demands exceptional full-stack engineering capabilities, deep product sense, personal accountability, and a talent for building from the ground up. Etched is scaling its processes, and this role involves deploying solutions to the toughest, time-sensitive, and business-critical challenges. This is a hands-on role with real project ownership that will shape Etched's execution, not a shadowing program. The ideal candidate is excited about a demanding, non-9-5 work environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Build internal tools to unblock hardware teams.
• Prototype systems for manufacturing execution.
• Design, evaluate, and deploy agentic systems for challenging R&D problems.
• Own a real project, scoped to land in production and shape how Etched executes.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Python and TypeScript: comfortable reading, modifying, debugging, and directing AI to write code effectively.
• Exceptional full-stack engineering capabilities.
• Deep product sense.
• Personal accountability.
• Knack for building from the ground up.

Qualifications

• A track record of solving hard problems across various stacks and domains; enjoy tackling unfamiliar territory.
• Demonstrated depth in a specific built project that can be explained in detail.
• AI tooling proficiency.
• Design taste.
• Bias towards action and comfort with incomplete information.

Strong Candidates May Also Have

• Data engineering, infrastructure, or DevOps experience.
• Experience deploying operational systems in enterprise environments.
• Experience wielding frontier models on frontier problems, including an eval-driven mindset.
• High agency and comfort with ambiguity.
• Prior startup experience, especially during hyper-growth phases.

Program Details

• 12-week paid internship (June - August 2026).
• Generous housing support for relocating individuals.
• Daily lunch and dinner provided in the office.
• Based at Etched's office in San Jose, CA.
• Direct mentorship from industry leaders and world-class engineers.
• Opportunity to work on important problems.

Contact: [email protected] for questions.