Intern - Device Build

Navi; United States; On-site; USD 25,000 - 34,000; Part time

Job summary

Navi builds hardware for aviation pilots. This hands-on hardware internship focuses on assembling, wiring, and testing Navi devices that capture data in real cockpits. You will work directly with hardware and engineering teams, learning fast by doing and fixing units that ship to real customers.

You will gain experience across assembly, testing, inventory tracking, and collaboration with engineers across hardware, firmware, and software to close the loop between build and flight data.

Qualifications

• Pursuing an engineering degree or has equivalent hands-on experience.
• Comfortable with hand tools, wiring and basic electronics debugging.
• Careful and consistent— hardware that flies must be built the same way every time.

Responsibilities

• Assemble, wire, and bench-test Navi devices — audio capture, mounting hardware, cable harnesses, enclosures.
• Diagnose failures on field-reported units and feed learnings back into the build.
• Improve the build process with fixturing, documentation, and faster unit throughput.

Skills

Hand tools

Electronics debugging

Attention to detail

Hands-on projects

Education

Engineering degree or equivalent hands-on experience

Tools

CAD

3D printing

Fabrication

Job description

Navi captures everything a pilot sees and hears and turns it into automated debrief intelligence — sortie-level awareness that has never existed before. None of it works without the hardware in the aircraft. That's what you'll build.

About the role

This is a hands-on hardware internship. You'll build, test, and ship the devices that fly in real aircraft at university flight schools and military squadrons. Every unit you assemble ends up in a cockpit, capturing data a pilot and instructor will sit down and review that same day. Nothing here is a prototype exercise. Navi is already live at leading flight schools.

You'll work directly with our hardware and engineering teams, and you'll see the consequences of your work fast — if a unit fails, you'll hear about it, and you'll be part of fixing it.

What you'll do

• Assemble, wire, and bench-test Navi devices — audio capture, mounting hardware, cable harnesses, enclosures

• Diagnose failures on returned or field-reported units and feed what you learn back into the build

• Help improve the build itself — fixturing, assembly documentation, anything that makes the next hundred units faster and more reliable than the last hundred

• Track inventory, components, and BOMs so we never stall a deployment waiting on a part

• Assist in preparing shipments, and willing to learn and assist in other tasks too

• Work alongside engineers across hardware, firmware, and software to close the loop between what we build and what pilots actually experience

About you

• Currently pursuing a degree in engineering, or equivalent hands‑on experience — we care more about what you've built than where you're enrolled

• Comfortable with hand tools, wiring and basic electronics debugging

• Careful and consistent. Hardware that flies has to be built the same way every time, and you take that seriously

• You've built physical things — personal projects, robotics teams, Formula SAE, RC aircraft, drones, a workshop in your garage. Tell us about them

• Willing to do the unglamorous work. Some days are assembly and testing, and those units still have to be perfect

• Curious about why things fail and persistent enough to find out

• Comfortable in ambiguity — processes here are still being written, and you'll help write them

Nice to have

• You know how to fly. A private pilot certificate, student pilot time, or any flight training is a real bonus. Pilots understand the cockpit environment these devices live in, and we'll lean on you for more than device build — flight testing, data collection, ride‑alongs, and translating what actually happens in the aircraft back to the engineering team

• Familiarity with aviation systems, avionics, or general aviation aircraft

• CAD, 3D printing, or fabrication experience

• Basic scripting for test automation or data validation

Why this role matters

Pilots trust their lives to the systems in front of them. The device you build is the first link in that chain — if it doesn't capture clean data, nothing downstream works. Interns here own real units going to real customers, not side projects.

What you'll get

• Hardware that ships — your work flies in aircraft at flight schools, airlines, and the U.S. Air Force

• Direct access to the founding team and every part of the stack, from hardware to AI

• A path to a full-time role for interns who prove they can own the build

How we work

• Find a way. We don't wait for permission or perfect information. Ideas come from anywhere regardless of title. Figure it out, ship it, iterate.

• Creativity over control. First principles over process. We'd rather have a creative solution that's 80% right today than a perfect one next quarter.

• Update fast. Come in with a hypothesis, throw it away when the data says otherwise. Ego has no place here.

• Intensity with focus. We work hard because the mission demands it. Clarity on what matters is how we make that sustainable.