Lab Operations Intern

Etched.ai; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 28,000 - 41,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Housing support

Lunch & dinner in office

Based in San Jose, CA office

Job summary

Etched is seeking a hands-on intern to help run test stations, assemble hardware, manage inventory, and support daily operations from parts to working racks. You’ll gain end-to-end exposure to frontier AI hardware with mentorship from seasoned engineers.

This fully in-person role is based in San Jose, CA, and includes 12 weeks of paid work, housing support for relocation, and daily office meals. Evening or weekend availability is a plus as projects run around the clock.

Qualifications

• Extreme attention to detail.
• Interest in both software and hardware.
• Excitement to learn how a hardware company works end to end.
• Comfort with hands-on work.
• Evening or weekend availability.
• Curiosity and bias to action — identify what needs doing and do it.

Responsibilities

• Run test stations and verify hardware functionality.
• Assemble and rework hardware components.
• Cable racks and manage inventory.
• Own day-to-day operations turning parts into working systems.
• Observe and document hardware tests from tray to rack.

Skills

Attention to detail

Hands-on work

Interest in software & hardware

Curiosity & bias to action

Evening/weekend availability

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 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 [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.

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.