Design Engineer Intern

Dedalus Labs · San Francisco, CA · 1 wk ago

On-siteEngineeringInternship

About the role

Dedalus Labs is an AI research neolab building infrastructure for AI agents. We are looking for an exceptional Design Engineer Intern to help build the interface for the platform that will power the AI agents of the future.

This is a year-round internship program with four seasons annually, each lasting approximately three months. The program is designed for unusually talented, high-slope builders who may not yet be ready for a full-time role but have already demonstrated exceptional ability for their stage. Strong interns may be considered for full-time opportunities.

Responsibilities

Design and build interfaces for AI-agent infrastructure.
Work across interaction design, visual design, and frontend engineering.
Turn ambiguous product ideas into thoughtful, polished experiences.
Build responsive, accessible, and high-performance interfaces.
Prototype new interactions using modern browser and rendering technologies.
Contribute production-quality work rather than disposable intern projects.
Work closely with Dedalus engineers and receive direct, rigorous feedback.
Own a meaningful project from initial thinking through implementation and refinement.

Requirements

We care much more about what you have built than your school, credentials, or years of experience.

Strong ability with React and TypeScript.
Experience with frameworks such as Next.js, Vite, or Remix.
Fluency with AI coding tools.
Strong instincts for responsive design and motion.
Thoughtful use of styling systems such as Tailwind CSS.
Good judgment around RSC, streaming, loading states, and perceived performance.
Evidence that you care about accessibility and Core Web Vitals.
Modern CSS you are a little smug about.
A strong personal website demonstrating your taste and craft.
A public GitHub showing how you think and build.
Clear evidence of personal ownership over the work you present.
The ability to explain your decisions, tradeoffs, failed approaches, and hardest technical problems.

Nice to have

Experience with Motion, GSAP, View Transitions, WebGL, Three.js, React Three Fiber, or similar tools.
Familiarity with high-performance tooling such as Vite+, Oxc, or related projects.
Experience with Canvas, shaders, GLSL, or WebGPU.
Meaningful open-source contributions.
Tools or techniques we have not heard of yet.
Experience writing APIs.
Comfort with Supabase or a similar database.
Strong knowledge of types.
Interest in category theory.
A self-directed project that goes significantly beyond a class assignment.
Evidence of unusually rapid learning or achievement for your stage.

Taste

You know what good looks like—and your work demonstrates it. A beautiful portfolio is not enough on its own. We care about the quality of your implementation, the reasoning behind your decisions, the details others overlook, and whether you can turn taste into working software.

Internship structure

Applications are accepted throughout the year.
We typically run four internship seasons annually.
Each season lasts approximately three months.
The internship is paid and full-time.
Start dates are coordinated based on candidate and team availability.
Interns work on substantive projects with real ownership.
Exceptional performance may lead to consideration for a full-time position, but conversion is not guaranteed.

Schedule

Full-time for approximately three months.
In person, five days per week, in San Francisco.

Logistics

Relocation support may be available.
Visa support may be available based on individual eligibility and timing.
This is not a remote internship.

The first things we look at are your GitHub and personal website. Both are required. Show us the best version of yourself: the work you are proudest of, what you personally designed and built, the hardest problem you encountered, the decisions and tradeoffs you made, what failed and what you learned, and what you would specifically like to build or accomplish at Dedalus during a three-month season. We care more about exceptional work, learning velocity, ownership, and taste than formal credentials.