Flight Software Internship - Fall 2026

About the role

Fall internships will range between the months of August and December. All dates dependent upon the university schedule of the selected students. Internships are full-time and on-site in Los Angeles, CA. To be considered for this internship, candidates must be actively enrolled in an accredited undergraduate or graduate degree program.

Responsibilities

• You will be paired with mentors across Mission Software, Flight Software, and Embedded Systems, and your projects will be matched to your skills and coursework.
• Use first-principles reasoning to approach problems and justify design tradeoffs.
• Build Python and/or C++ tools, services, and libraries that interface with flight and ground systems, emphasizing correctness, determinism, and observability.
• Contribute to automation for simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and scenario-based testing.
• Debug issues that cross abstraction boundaries, including OS behavior, networking, timing, and hardware-software interactions.
• Collaborate across flight software, embedded systems, mission operations, and test teams; communicate clearly, ask clarifying questions early, and seek support when needed.

Qualifications

• Proficiency in C++ and/or Python.
• Actively enrolled in an accredited undergraduate or graduate program during the internship term.
• Understanding of core computer science fundamentals including data structures, algorithms, and operating systems.
• Ability to debug complex software issues and comfort working in Linux environments.

Preferred Skills And Experience

• Familiarity with systems fundamentals including concurrency, networking, performance, and reliability.
• Exposure to real-time embedded development or safety-critical software, and a working knowledge of math and physics.
• Experience may come from coursework, personal projects, community college, bootcamps, open-source contributions, internships, or self-driven learning. We care more about your fundamentals, curiosity, and engineering approach than how you acquired them.
• Participation in any project work. Whether robotics, rocketry, capstone projects, personal builds, lab work, or open-source contributions. Focus on demonstrating an interest in understanding systems beneath abstraction layers.

Compensation

Hourly Rate: $37.00
Housing stipend for interns relocating to the area
Commuter benefit to support local transportation

Benefits

• Health & Wellness: Flexible PTO policy + 12 paid holidays, 100% company-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans for employees and dependents with FSA and employer-matched HSA options, Voluntary accident, hospital, critical illness, and pet insurance, $120/month wellness reimbursement for gym and fitness expenses, 12 weeks of parental leave (with supplemental disability leave for CA mothers), Family building, pregnancy, parenting and menopause benefits via Maven Clinic, Sponsored One Medical memberships for employees and their dependents
• Financial & Retirement: Substantial incentive equity in a fully funded space start-up, 401(k) retirement plan with 6% employer match (immediately vested), $20/pay period cell phone reimbursement
• Workplace Experience & Perks: Fully stocked kitchen with lunch provided daily and dinner provided twice weekly, Company and team-bonding events, happy hours and mission-success celebrations, Complimentary EV charging

ITAR Requirements

Varda, like all employers, must ensure that its employees working in the United States are lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. Additionally, our employees are exposed to and have access to certain export-controlled items. Because our employees are provided access to export-controlled items, our policy is to only hire “U.S. persons” who are permitted to have access to our technology without an export license.

E-Verify Statement

Varda Space Industries, Inc. participates in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security E-Verify program. The E-Verify program is an Internet-based employment eligibility verification system operated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Learn more about the E-Verify program.