Etched

People Operations Intern at Etched (San Jose, CA)

Etched· San Jose, CA·

Role details

Work type
Onsite
Employment
Full-Time

Etched at a glance

Transformer-specific ASICs and rack-scale systems that hardwire the transformer into silicon for faster, cheaper AI inference.

Etched designs transformer-specific ASICs and full rack-scale inference systems. Its Sohu chip hardwires the transformer architecture directly into silicon, trading a GPU's general-purpose flexibility for far higher throughput, lower latency, and better power efficiency on AI inference. Customers buy complete co-designed clusters, chip plus rack plus software, not standalone chips.

$800M raised · latest: $500M · led by Stripes · Dec 2025 (reported Jan 2026) · backed by Stripes, Peter Thiel, Ribbit Capital, VentureTech Alliance

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 both prefill and decode workloads. Our first products are heavily focused on inference. Backed by hundreds of millions from top-tier investors and staffed by leading engineers, Etched is redefining the infrastructure layer for the fastest growing industry in history.

Job Summary We are looking for a sharp, high-agency intern to support People Operations and Legal. You will own real work across compliance, audits, employee operations, contracts, and company projects. You will investigate problems, organize messy information, work across teams, and drive projects through completion. The role is based in our San Jose office.

Key Responsibilities

  • Run People and Legal internal audits, including employment agreements, I-9s, policies, and employee records
  • Track compliance requirements and prepare filings, reports, and supporting records
  • Review data across Rippling, spreadsheets, and source documents to find and fix gaps
  • Support contracts, signatures, document storage, and other Legal operations
  • Help manage onboarding, offboarding, employee changes, and recruiting handoffs
  • Build clear guides and processes for employees, including travel and office resources
  • Coordinate with People, Legal, Finance, Recruiting, and workplace teams
  • Research employment and business requirements and turn findings into clear next steps
  • Take on time-sensitive projects as the company grows

You may be a good fit if you have (Must-have qualifications)

  • Current undergraduate or recent graduate interested in People Operations, Legal, or business operations
  • Strong attention to detail
  • Clear written and verbal communication
  • Good judgment with sensitive information
  • Able to work through incomplete or conflicting information
  • Comfortable using spreadsheets and learning new systems
  • Organized, reliable, and quick to follow through
  • Willing to ask questions, find answers, and take ownership

Strong candidates may also have experience with (Nice-to-have qualifications)

  • Previous internship, campus leadership, or volunteer experience involving administrative or operational support
  • Familiarity with HR, recruiting, or document management systems
  • Experience reviewing records, reconciling data, or flagging discrepancies
  • Experience documenting processes or suggesting ways to make routine tasks more efficient

We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every qualification.

Program details

  • 12-week paid internship
  • 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 internships@etched.com.

How we’re different

Etched believes in theBitter 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, unlike many of our competitors.

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.

Why work at Etched

  • Mission-driven, high-impact engineering: “Building the hardware for superintelligence” – the company is solving one of the hardest problems in compute (inference efficiency) with a focused team.
  • Top-tier team and learning environment: Colleagues from Google, NVIDIA, Apple, Tesla, Broadcom, and Intel; exposure to full-stack chip-to-system design.
  • In-office culture: All roles are in-office (Cupertino and San Jose, CA). The company emphasizes on-site collaboration for hardware development. Notable perks are not heavily advertised, but compensation is competitive for the AI hardware space (equity-heavy).
  • Growth trajectory: 141% headcount growth YoY, hundreds of open roles, and a $5B valuation signal strong backing and career acceleration potential.
  • Intellectual challenge: Work on chip simulation, RTL design, system validation, or software infrastructure for cutting-edge AI inference.

Application questions