Lab Operations Intern

Location: San Jose Department: Operations Employment Type: FullTime Location Type: On-site

About Etched

Etched is building hardware for frontier intelligence. We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing to deliver best-in-class throughput and latency across prefill and decode. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, we're redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Job Summary

Etched's lab keeps our hardware running 24/7. Our chips, modules, and racks are constantly being tested, and we need sharp, reliable hands to make it happen. You'll run test stations, assemble and rework hardware, cable racks, manage inventory, and own the day-to-day operations that turn raw silicon into working systems. You will see how a frontier AI chip goes from a tray of parts to a running rack, and reliable, curious interns take on engineering work over time.

This role is for people genuinely excited about what we're building and willing to do real, often repetitive work with precision and care. Evening and weekend availability is a plus. This role is fully in-person in San Jose.

You may be a good fit if you:

Have extreme attention to detail

Interested in both software and hardware

Are excited about learning how a hardware company works end to end

Are comfortable with hands-on work

Have evening or weekend availability

Curiosity and bias to action — see what needs doing and figure it out

Strong candidates may also have:

Experience with software, mechanical engineering, or thermal systems

Understanding of accelerator hardware, or datacenter environments

Have owned or built hardware testing systems

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every qualification.

Program details

12-week paid internship (June - August 2026)

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 one of the most important problems of our time

For any questions, contact [email protected]

How we're different

Etched believes in the Bitter Lesson. We are the first inference-focused frontier AI system, betting early on transformer and transformer-like architectures and on increasing model sizes. Our addressable market is the entirety of inference.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose and Taipei, and greatly value engineering skills. We do not have boundaries between engineering and research, and we expect all of our technical staff to contribute to both and work across disciplines as needed.