Site Reliability Internship

About Varda

• Low Earth orbit is open for business.
• Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules.
• Varda’s W-Series vehicles are built, designed, and operated in-house, including pharmaceutical processing payloads, capsules, C-PICA heat shields, and satellite buses.
• Varda's mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind by creating products and infrastructure for space manufacturing.
• The team comprises veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, major pharmaceutical companies, and Silicon Valley.
• Founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with backing from investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, and Also Capital.
• Headquartered in El Segundo, California, with offices and a production facility.
• Also has offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL.

About This Role

• Summer internships range from May to August, dependent on university schedules.
• Internships are full-time and on-site in El Segundo, CA.
• Candidates must be actively enrolled in an accredited undergraduate or graduate degree program.
• Site Reliability supports infrastructure, hardware, software, and services across all departments.
• Responsibilities include ensuring service reliability, implementing new tools at scale, supporting team member onboarding, building new engineering areas, troubleshooting system administration challenges, and implementing automation.
• Internships are for students looking to grow technically and professionally on impactful projects in a collaborative startup environment, learning from experienced aerospace professionals.

Key Responsibilities

• Deploy and manage services in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters using Argo CD
• Assist with system patching and maintenance tasks for internal services
• Upgrade and support Atlassian tooling (e.g., Jira, Confluence)
• Contribute to infrastructure-as-code efforts using Linux-based tooling and scripting
• Monitor service reliability and automate operations tasks to improve system uptime and performance

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Python programming experience
• Familiarity with Linux environments
• Understanding of cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, or GCP)
• Coursework or experience with one or more of the following:
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Networking or system security fundamentals

Preferred Skills And Experience

• Hands-on experience with cloud deployment (Azure, AWS, or GCP)
• Experience with Docker and Kubernetes in a lab or personal project setting
• Familiarity with CI/CD concepts or tools like Argo CD, Jenkins, or GitHub Actions
• Previous internship, research, or project experience in DevOps or systems engineering

Compensation

• Hourly Rate: $33.00
• Housing stipend for interns relocating to the area
• Commuter benefit to support local transportation

Benefits for Interns

Health & Wellness

• Paid observed holidays
• 100% company-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans for employees and dependents with FSA and employer-matched HSA options
• $120/month wellness reimbursement for gym and fitness expenses
• Sponsored One Medical memberships for employees and their dependents

Financial

• $20/pay period cell phone reimbursement
• Up to $4,000 gross up in relocation support, if eligible
• Up to $850 commute credit through Lyft or car rental reimbursement, if eligible

Workplace Experience & Perks

• Fully stocked kitchen with lunch provided daily and dinner provided twice weekly
• Company and team-bonding events, happy hours, and mission-success celebrations
• Complimentary EV charging

ITAR Requirements

Varda requires employees to be lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. and only hires “U.S. persons” (U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident, or protected individual) due to access to export-controlled items.