Spring Co-Op/Internship

The Design Rules Company•New York City, NY

13h

About The Position

This multidisciplinary engineering internship spans electrical, software, firmware, and mechanical design. The intern will help turn product ideas into working objects, moving among disciplines according to what the product needs. Work may include circuit design, firmware, software tools, and mechanical assemblies, with the product—not a single engineering discipline—as the focus. The role is suited to someone who enjoys making things and wants to build a broad skill set. The intern is expected to learn unfamiliar areas, take ownership of understanding how the product works as a whole, and work independently in a self-directed, high-ownership environment. They will work closely with the engineering team to decide what to build and how to build it. The company is a small product design company focused on transit systems and cities. Its flagship product, Metroboard, is a walnut and aluminum art piece that displays live train movement through a city. The company is in an early scaling phase, with strong traction in New York and growing presence in other major cities.

Requirements

Strong curiosity across engineering disciplines and a desire to understand how things work.
Experience making things through personal projects, coursework, or other hands-on work.
Comfort moving among code, electronics, and physical design, including areas that may be new.
Ability to work independently, ask good questions, and create structure without every step being defined.
Strong initiative and willingness to own a problem from initial questions through testing.
Sensitivity to how technical decisions affect a product’s form and experience.
Ability to move quickly, experiment, and learn from unsuccessful attempts.

Nice To Haves

Interest in objects, cities, infrastructure, and physical design.

Responsibilities

Explore product ideas through research, experiments, and working prototypes.
Work across electronics, firmware, software, and mechanical design according to product needs.
Design and test circuits, write code, and develop physical parts and assemblies.
Connect components into complete prototypes and assess how they work together.
Investigate unfamiliar tools, materials, and technical approaches to build knowledge and make decisions.
Test and debug work, identify problems, and improve designs through iteration.
Document learning, decisions, experiments, and technical knowledge for use beyond a single prototype.
Contribute to the product design of upcoming products, balancing function, form, and manufacturability.
Help define questions, determine what needs to be learned, and move projects forward independently.
Work with the engineering team to decide what to build next and how to build it.