---
title: 'AI Intern at Terranova'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/ai-intern-terranova-berkeley-rcwsnmbgfeyb'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-09'
---

# AI Intern at Terranova

- **Company:** Terranova
- **Location:** Berkeley, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-11-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/Terranova/b6ce03c4-07b6-45e1-94e9-24b3ec17d942

## Job description

## About Terranova

Terranova is a hard-tech company developing innovative systems to reshape the physical world. We combine mechanical engineering, robotics, automation, and real-world field operations to tackle complex engineering challenges. We're looking for an AI Tool Engineer to help us build smarter, more efficient ways of working across our engineering, manufacturing, and field operations.

## About the Role

As an AI Tool Engineer at Terranova, you'll develop practical AI-powered tools, software, and analytical models that improve how our team designs, builds, tests, and operates complex machinery. This is a highly hands-on role focused on solving real engineering and operational problems. You'll work closely with mechanical, electrical, software, and field engineers to identify inefficiencies, automate repetitive workflows, and turn operational data into actionable insights. We're looking for someone who can independently identify opportunities, rapidly prototype solutions, and deploy tools that make a measurable difference in how the company operates.

## What You'll Do

AI Tools & Workflow Automation

- Design and build internal AI-powered tools that streamline engineering, manufacturing, and operational workflows.
- Identify repetitive, manual, or cumbersome processes and develop software solutions to automate them.
- Integrate AI tools with existing engineering software, databases, documentation, and operational systems.
- Build internal applications that help engineers and operators access information, make decisions, and complete tasks more efficiently.

Data Analysis & Process Optimization

- Develop systems to collect, track, and analyze metrics across shop operations, equipment performance, and field activities.
- Analyze field injection data, including flow rates, pressures, material consumption, ground uplift, and operational efficiency.
- Build dashboards, reporting tools, and data pipelines to visualize performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Help quantify engineering and manufacturing processes to establish benchmarks, monitor performance, and reduce inefficiencies.
- Develop models to predict operational outcomes, improve process parameters, and support engineering decisions.

Modeling & Applied AI

- Build and deploy machine learning, statistical, and predictive models for engineering applications.
- Use LLMs, AI agents, and other emerging technologies to automate complex workflows and improve internal productivity.
- Develop tools for analyzing experimental results, identifying trends, and optimizing system performance.
- Explore new applications of AI across robotics, manufacturing, equipment monitoring, and field operations.

Cross-Functional Engineering

- Work directly with engineers, technicians, and operators to understand challenges and develop practical solutions.
- Take projects from problem identification through prototyping, implementation, and iteration.
- Build lightweight, maintainable tools that can be deployed quickly and improved based on real-world feedback.
- Proactively identify opportunities where software, data, or AI can improve the company's efficiency and capabilities.

## What We're Looking For

- Strong proficiency in Python and experience building software tools, automation scripts, and data-processing pipelines.
- Experience working with LLM APIs, AI agents, machine learning frameworks, or applied AI systems.
- Ability to build end-to-end applications, from data ingestion and backend logic to simple user interfaces.
- Strong data analysis skills, including SQL, Pandas, and statistical modeling.
- Experience integrating APIs, databases, and third-party software platforms.
- Comfortable working with messy, incomplete, or unstructured real-world data.
- Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to independently take loosely defined problems and turn them into working solutions.
- Interest in physical engineering systems, manufacturing, robotics, or industrial operations.
- Ability to work closely with multidisciplinary teams and communicate technical concepts clearly.

## Nice to Have

- Experience with industrial automation, PLCs, sensors, or equipment telemetry.
- Familiarity with mechanical engineering, fluid systems, hydraulics, or manufacturing processes.
- Experience with time-series data, predictive modeling, or optimization algorithms.
- Experience developing computer vision applications for industrial monitoring or quality control.
- Familiarity with CAD software, engineering simulations, or engineering data pipelines.
- Experience deploying internal tools using modern web frameworks and cloud services.

Why Terranova? At Terranova, you'll have the opportunity to apply AI to real-world engineering problems rather than building software in isolation. Your work will directly influence how physical systems are designed, manufactured, tested, and operated. You'll have significant ownership over projects, the freedom to experiment with new technologies, and the ability to see your solutions implemented in the shop and in the field. We're looking for a builder who enjoys moving quickly, solving ambiguous problems, and using AI and software to make complex engineering operations more efficient.

## About Terranova

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Terranova builds car-sized terraforming robots that inject a wood slurry deep underground to lift land out of flood zones, providing permanent elevation without surface disturbance.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage)
- **Headquarters**: Berkeley, California, United States
- **Founded**: Not publicly available
- **Founders**: Trip Allen (CEO/Executive Chairman), Laurence Allen (Forward-Deployed CEO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Robotics Engineering, Climate Adaptation, Construction Technology
- Target customers: Real estate developers, infrastructure contractors, government agencies, defense organizations, and wetland conservation groups operating in flood-prone regions
- Mission or purpose statement: “To terraform the earth and usher in a new era of resilience and societal abundance” — Laurence Allen, CEO

## Products & Services
- **Terraforming Robot System**: A fleet of three car-sized injection robots and one “mothership” that can lift one acre by one foot per day. The robots inject a wood slurry deep underground to permanently elevate land with minimal surface disturbance.
- **Site Suitability Predictor**: An AI-driven tool that analyzes soil composition and flood risk to determine optimal project locations.
- **AI Injection Campaign Designer**: Machine learning reasoning models that design the precise injection pattern needed to achieve a desired surface topology.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $25.1 million (post-seed round)
- **Key Metric**: $7 million in seed funding (closed three times oversubscribed)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Outlander VC (co-lead), Congruent Ventures (co-lead), GoAhead Ventures, Gothams, Ponderosa (Galvanize Climate fund), and angels including Palmer Luckey
- **Growth Signals**: Emerging from stealth in 2025 with a $7M seed round; targeting costs up to an order of magnitude less than levees or seawalls; actively hiring across robotics, embedded systems, and business development roles

## Competitive Advantages
- **Cost advantage**: Targeting costs up to 10x cheaper than traditional levees or seawalls
- **Speed**: Projects completed in 2–8 weeks versus 3–36 months for conventional methods
- **Minimal environmental impact**: Uses waste biomass (wood slurry) as fill; no surface disturbance; minimal ecological disruption compared to surface fill or seawalls
- **Permanent solution**: Elevation is permanent, providing proactive flood protection rather than reactive defense
- **Unique technology moat**: Proprietary combination of heavy robotics, geotechnical engineering, and AI/ML for subsurface injection

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling from prototype to full-scale production of robot systems
- Beginning first commercial elevation projects in flood-prone regions (e.g., San Rafael, CA)
- Growing core engineering and field deployment teams
- Expanding into multiple verticals: real estate development, infrastructure, defense, mining, and wetlands restoration

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Mission-driven climate tech startup tackling a massive global problem (flooding costs the U.S. economy over $180B/year)
- **Work model**: In-office, based in Berkeley, CA (HQ) with a secondary office in Miami Beach, FL
- **Team size**: ~22 employees (as of mid-2025); tight-knit, early-stage environment
- **Engineering focus**: Heavy emphasis on robotics, controls, embedded systems, and mechanical engineering — a hardware-heavy startup building physical robots
- **Recent job openings**: Robotics Controls Engineer, Embedded Systems Engineer, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Director of Business Development, and multiple intern positions
- **Growth trajectory**: Early-stage with strong investor backing and clear product-market fit; opportunity to shape the company’s technical direction and culture

## Sources
1. [terranova.inc](https://www.terranova.inc/)
2. [LinkedIn - Terranova](https://www.linkedin.com/company/terranova-inc)
3. [Built In - Terranova Careers](https://builtin.com/company/terranova)
4. [The Robot Report - Seed Funding](https://www.therobotreport.com/terranova-gets-seed-funding-deploy-terraforming-robots/)
5. [Ashby Jobs Page](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/Terranova)

## Other roles at Terranova

- [Back End Data Infrastructure Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/back-end-data-infrastructure-engineer-terranova-berkeley-hv6xbxqazxta) — Berkeley, CA
- [Class A CDL Driver / Heavy Equipment Operator](https://feeny.ai/job/class-a-cdl-driver-heavy-equipment-operator-terranova-berkeley-qkce286xq7kp) — Berkeley, CA
- [Software Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineering-intern-terranova-berkeley-02z7w5wf45rq) — Berkeley, CA
- [Embedded Systems Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-systems-intern-terranova-berkeley-nkafcx1ay0fm) — Berkeley, CA
- [Mechanical/Test Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-test-engineering-intern-terranova-berkeley-mtpxk49w2aqg) — Berkeley, CA
- [Controls/Robotics Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/controls-robotics-intern-terranova-berkeley-8rnqgs5jrqvr) — Berkeley, CA
- [Field Equipment Operator](https://feeny.ai/job/field-equipment-operator-terranova-berkeley-cjq6v60x6vq0) — Berkeley, CA
- [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-terranova-berkeley-dymtafz15146) — Berkeley, CA
- [VP of Ops](https://feeny.ai/job/vp-of-ops-terranova-berkeley-8kxwk9hmgcmm) — Berkeley, CA
- [Embedded Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-systems-engineer-terranova-berkeley-0v4yajf3gvmt) — Berkeley, CA