Core Engineering Intern

Etched•San Jose, CA

23h•Onsite

About The Position

Core Engineering is Etched's special projects team, responsible for identifying critical gaps and building solutions from scratch, often within days, with immediate feedback loops. Interns in this role may build internal tools for hardware teams, prototype systems for manufacturing execution, or design, evaluate, and deploy agentic systems for challenging R&D problems. This role is ideal for engineers who thrive on ambiguity, move quickly without compromising quality, and enjoy solving the most pressing problems. It offers a unique opportunity to ship 0-1 production-level code weekly and experience the environment of a future founder. The role demands exceptional full-stack engineering capabilities, deep product sense, personal accountability, and a talent for ground-up development. Etched is scaling its processes, and this role involves tackling the company's toughest, time-sensitive, and business-critical challenges. The position is not a 9-5 role, and the ideal candidate will be enthusiastic about this demanding pace. This is a hands-on internship where interns will own a real project with the potential to impact Etched's execution.

Requirements

Exceptional full-stack engineering capabilities.
Deep product sense.
Personal accountability.
A knack for building from the ground up.
Track record of solving hard problems across stacks and domains.
Ability to be dropped into unfamiliar territory and figure things out.
Comfortable with Python and TypeScript: ability to read, modify, debug, and direct AI to write code.
Product sense and its necessary prerequisites, from AI tooling proficiency to design taste.
Bias towards action and comfort with incomplete information.

Nice To Haves

Data engineering, infrastructure or DevOps experience.
Experience deploying operational systems in enterprise environments.
Experience wielding frontier models on frontier problems.
An eval-driven mindset: ability to measure AI system performance, identify shortcomings, and improve them.
High agency and comfort with ambiguity.
Prior startup experience, especially during hyper growth.