Firmware Intern

About Etched

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence, co-designing chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency for prefill and decode workloads. Our first products focus on inference.

Job Summary

In this firmware role, you will develop firmware for chips designed to run large AI models efficiently. You will work across the stack, from low-level drivers, hardware interfaces, and system initialization code to integration with runtime libraries and model-execution frameworks. Your work will focus on ensuring reliable operation and peak performance of the hardware for high-throughput inference and training workloads. You will collaborate with hardware, architecture, and software teams to bring up new silicon, validate features, and support real-world AI applications. This internship is available for Summer '26, Fall '26, Spring '27, and Summer '27.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop firmware for AI chips.
• Work across low-level drivers, hardware interfaces, and system initialization code.
• Integrate with runtime libraries and model-execution frameworks.
• Ensure hardware operates reliably and at peak performance for inference and training.
• Collaborate with hardware, architecture, and software teams for silicon bring-up, feature validation, and AI application support.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Proficiency in C/C++ or Rust.
• Strong fundamentals in data structures and algorithms.
• Strong understanding of low-level software engineering.
• Strong understanding of hardware/software co-design.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Qualifications

• Progress towards a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.

Strong Candidates May Also Have (Nice To Have Qualifications)

• Experience with Linux internals, kernel development, or driver debugging.
• Experience with hardware diagnostics or interpreting hardware logs.
• Exposure to server virtualization or CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with Rust or embedded development.

Program Details

• 12-week paid internship.
• Generous housing support for those relocating.
• Daily lunch and dinner in our office.
• Based at our office in San Jose, CA.
• Direct mentorship from industry leaders and world-class engineers.
• Opportunity to work on important problems in AI.