Software Tester Internship Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

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. 

As a Software Engineering Intern, you will contribute to the software that powers Varda's missions across ground systems, flight and embedded software, testing and simulation, and developer platform and infrastructure. You will help build tools and services that assist engineers and operators in monitoring, commanding, and analyzing spacecraft, strengthen testing and simulation capabilities, and improve reliability and observability for missioncritical operations.

We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, including those historically underrepresented in aerospace and software, as well as candidates from nontraditional educational paths. If you are driven by curiosity, motivated to learn fundamentals, and excited to tackle real engineering constraints, we want to hear from you. Even if you don't meet every preferred skill or haven't had access to robotics teams, embedded labs, or maker spaces. We value potential, clarity of thought, and growth mindset.

At Varda, writing code is often the smaller challenge. The larger challenge is engineering systems that behave correctly under real constraints. We think about the timing, determinism, safety, reliability, and clarity of design. We value firstprinciples reasoning, curiosity about how computers and networks actually work, and a disciplined approach to understanding problems at their root.

• Work with engineers building components for baremetal, RTOS, and Linuxbased embedded processors and learn verification and validation techniques used to ensure system quality.
• Contribute to services for telemetry ingestion, scaling, distribution, and commanding, and help build operatorfocused interfaces that reduce cognitive load during integration, testing, and onorbit operations.
• Build tools for flightsoftware simulations, device emulators, and automated tests to enable fast, safe iteration for avionics, GNC, and mission operations teams.
• Help standardize CI/CD pipelines, artifact management, service templates, infrastructureascode, hardwareintheloop frameworks, test harnesses, and observability tools.

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 firstprinciples 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, hardwareintheloop, and scenariobased testing.
• Debug issues that cross abstraction boundaries, including OS behavior, networking, timing, and hardwaresoftware interactions.
• Collaborate across flight software, embedded systems, mission operations, and test teams; communicate clearly, ask clarifying questions early, and seek support when needed.

• 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.

• Familiarity with systems fundamentals including concurrency, networking, performance, and reliability.
• Exposure to realtime embedded development or safetycritical software, and a working knowledge of math and physics.
• Experience may come from coursework, personal projects, community college, bootcamps, opensource contributions, internships, or selfdriven 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 opensource contributions. Focus on demonstrating an interest in understanding systems beneath abstraction layers.

• Data Structures & Algorithms
• Operating Systems
• Computer Architecture
• Software Engineering / CS Fundamentals
• Bonus: Signals and Systems, Digital Design, Embedded Systems, Electronics

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