Chip Simulation Software Intern

The Consensus; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 34,440 - 55,104; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Housing support

Daily meals in office

Job summary

Etched in San Jose, CA offers a 12-week paid internship in chip simulation and tooling. You will co-design, develop, and test simulations of our custom hardware and tools, collaborating with software and hardware engineers on the full development path.

Candidates pursuing BS/MS/PhD in CS or engineering with C/C++ or Rust, strong data structures, and a passion for low-level software/hardware co-design are encouraged to apply. Relocation housing support and daily meals are provided.

Qualifications

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

Responsibilities

• Assist in co-design, development, and testing of simulations for our custom hardware and tools.
• Collaborate with software and hardware teams across the full development path.
• Contribute to debugging and optimization of chip simulations and tooling.
• Prepare concise documentation and reports for mentors.
• Present findings and progress to industry leaders and engineers.

Skills

C/C++

Rust

Data structures & algorithms

Low-level software engineering

Hardware/software co-design

Communication skills

Education

Pursuing BS/MS/PhD in CS/Engineering

Job description

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 both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

The roles

Our chip simulation and tooling role will co-design, develop, and test simulations of our custom hardware and tools that engineers use to analyze those systems. You will be working at the cutting edge of hardware innovation, closely coordinating with both software and hardware teams across their whole development path. We are looking for Fall '26, Spring '27, and Summer '27 interns.

You may be a good fit if you have

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

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

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

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 one of the most important problems of our time

For any questions, contact [e-mail]

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, unlike many of our competitors.

We are a fully in-person team in San Jose (Santana Row), 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.