Hardware Engineering Intern / Co-op

Cephla Inc.; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 34,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

Cephla is building the critical imaging infrastructure for modern biology and drug discovery. Our open and programmable automated microscopes and integrated solutions around them take down barriers to high-end imaging and are already powering research and large-scale data production at leading academic labs, biotech startups, and pharma.

You're part of a small team of scientists and engineers, working closely with the founders, and may collaborate directly with our users on instrumentation from

Qualifications

• Pursuing or recently completed degree in Engineering, Physics, or a related field.
• Proficiency with a modern CAD package (SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, etc.).
• Demonstrated hands-on building experience in projects, teams, internships, or labs.
• Strong grounding in engineering fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Own projects from idea to production, including mechanical design and GD&T.
• Design to manufacturing: drawings, BOMs, vendor coordination, DFM.
• Prototype and assemble hardware and perform testing and characterization.
• System integration and thorough documentation.
• Potential work in automation, robotics, and new imaging modalities.

Skills

Hands-on building experience

CAD experience

Engineering fundamentals

Education

Pursuing or recently completed degree in Engineering, Physics, or related field

Tools

SolidWorks

Autodesk Inventor

Job description

Cephla is building the critical imaging infrastructure for modern biology and drug discovery.Our open and programmable automated microscopes and integrated solutions around them take downbarriers to high-end imaging and are already powering research and large-scale data productionat leading academic labs, biotech startups, and pharma. In parallel, our Octopi bringsAI-enabled microscopy to diagnostics, starting with malaria.

We're a small team of scientists and engineers, mission-driven and deeply invested in ourusers' success as the experiments running on our instruments are often critical to researchthat will advance science and can impact human health. You'll work closely with thefounders and the rest of our team, and may collaborate directly with our users.

Responsibilities

You will own projects from idea to production, with aspects including:

• Mechanical design — designing components and assemblies for new modules/instruments and improvements to existing ones (CAD, GD&T, mechanical and opto-mechanical assemblies)
• Design to manufacturing — taking designs from concept through production: drawings, BOMs, vendor coordination, DFM iteration
• Prototyping and assembly — building first prototypes with your own hands
• Testing and characterization
• System integration
• Documentation

Depending on your interests and what we need, your work may also stretch into:

• Automation and robotics
• Exploratory work on new imaging modalities and early-stage technology development

Required qualifications

• Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in Engineering, Physics, or a related field
• Proficiency in a modern CAD package (SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, etc.)
• Demonstrated hands-on building experience — personal projects, project teams, prior internships, lab work, anything where you've actually made things
• Strong understanding of engineering fundamentals

Additional Requirements

• Resourceful, flexible and adaptable. You're happy to take on whatever the project needs
• Comfortable with ambiguity. You find that having to define the problem is exciting rather than frustrating
• You deliver. You know the difference between polishing and finishing — you'll skip the endless tweaking, but sweat the small details that make something work reliably
• Curious across disciplines. You're excited to learn across disciplines — optics, mechanics, electronics, biology — and to go deep where a problem demands it

Who will love this job (and who we're looking for)

• You're passionate about science and tool-building, and you want your work to enable discoveries and/or help solve important problems
• You have high agency. You take ownership and figure things out without being told what to do next
• You want to own hardware that ships and gets used, and to learn and grow fast along the way

Terms

We welcome both internship and co-op applicants. This role is open year-round. You can apply for one or more of the following terms: Fall 2026, Winter 2027, Spring 2027, and Summer 2027.