Firmware Intern

Job Title

Firmware Intern

Role Summary

Develop firmware for Etched's inference-focused chips, working across low-level drivers, hardware interfaces, system initialization, and integration with runtime and model-execution frameworks. The role supports silicon bring-up, feature validation, and performance optimization to enable high-throughput inference workloads.

This is a paid, in-person internship based in San Jose, CA. Multiple internship terms are available (Summer '26, Fall '26, Spring '27, Summer '27).

Experience Level

Internship — early-career, intended for current undergraduate or graduate students.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include:

• Implement and maintain low-level firmware: drivers, hardware interfaces, and system initialization code.
• Integrate firmware with runtime libraries and model-execution frameworks.
• Support silicon bring-up and validate hardware features through firmware tests.
• Profile and optimize firmware for reliability and peak performance on inference workloads.
• Debug hardware/firmware interactions and analyze hardware logs.
• Collaborate with hardware, architecture, and software teams to deliver validated systems.
• Write tests, documentation, and tooling to support reproducible validation and debugging.

Requirements

Must-have skills and expectations:

• Proficiency in C/C++ or Rust.
• Strong fundamentals in data structures and algorithms.
• Solid low-level software engineering skills and familiarity with hardware/software co-design.
• Good communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to work on-site in San Jose for the internship term (12-week program).

Nice-to-have:

• Experience with Linux internals, kernel development, or driver debugging.
• Experience interpreting hardware diagnostics and logs.
• Exposure to server virtualization, CI/CD pipelines, or embedded development.
• Experience with Rust for embedded systems.

Education Requirements

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

About the Company

Company: Etched

Headquarters: San Jose, CA, United States

Etched develops purpose-built AI inference ASICs and systems optimized for transformer models, aiming to deliver significantly higher performance, lower cost, and lower latency than GPUs. The company focuses on enabling applications like real-time video generation and advanced reasoning agents, and is backed by leading investors and engineers.