The board
Internship
Engineering
Software Engineering Intern – Distributed Simulation Systems
Astera · Projects
- Pay
- $25 – $60 per hour
- Where
- Emeryville HQ
- Posted
- May 13
Astera Institute is seeking a Software Engineering Intern to help build infrastructure for large-scale distributed simulation systems, including biological systems and physics-based environments.
This internship is ideal for someone excited about systems programming, simulation, distributed computing, or scientific infrastructure. You’ll work closely with experienced engineers on real technical problems spanning simulation, networking, orchestration, and performance optimization.
You do not need prior professional experience in all of these areas — we care most about strong technical fundamentals, curiosity, and a willingness to learn quickly.
Areas you may work on include:
What you'd do
- Contribute to distributed simulation infrastructure and tooling
- Help build networking and communication systems for multi-node simulations
- Assist with development of MuJoCo-based or other 3D simulation environments
- Work on systems for large-scale biological simulations
- Improve simulation throughput and system reliability
- Debug and profile performance bottlenecks
- Build internal tools for orchestration, visualization, and developer workflows
- Collaborate with researchers and engineers across simulation and infrastructure projects
- Surprising problem-solver – you love finding unexpected solutions to problems we don't even know we have, and see options where others only see constraints.
- Flexible by default – you don't draw hard lines around your job description and expect your role to evolve significantly over 6–12 months.
What they want
- Strong programming fundamentals
- Experience with C++, Python, or similar systems languages
- Familiarity with Linux development environments
- Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and concurrency fundamentals
- Interest in distributed systems, simulation, or systems engineering
- Ability to learn quickly and work independently on technical problems
About Astera · Projects
Astera is a private foundation on a mission to steer science and technology toward a better future. We believe the coming years will bring an era of unprecedented scientific and technological advancement as exponential progress in AI converges with central advances in other fields to accelerate innovation. This inflection point provides an unparalleled opportunity to fundamentally rethink the institutions, systems, and tools that drive progress.