Software Engineer Intern - Aerospace Manufacturing

The opportunity Design, build, and ship a real production application for an aerospace manufacturer in six weeks. You will own the work end-to-end: meeting the users whose problem you're solving, presenting your plan to senior leadership, writing the code, testing it against real data, and handing it off to the people who will use it after you leave. You will work directly with executives and subject-matter experts who build advanced aerospace products. You will use the most capable AI development tools available. And you will leave with something rare on an early-career resume — a production application, used by a real business, built by you. Who we are and why this program exists Zepher Inc. is a precision aerospace contract manufacturer based in Bingen, Washington, in the Columbia River Gorge. We design, machine, assemble, and test components and systems for aerospace, defense, and commercial customers, and we operate to AS9100 and

ISO 9001

standards as an ITAR-registered facility. Our customers depend on us for tight tolerances, complex assemblies, and the kind of communication and project management that complicated aerospace work demands. We are not a software company, and we don't have a software engineering department — but we have real business problems that good software can solve, and we've seen what's possible when modern AI-assisted development tools are put in the hands of someone who knows how to use them. This program is built on a conviction: a sharp, motivated early-career engineer with the right tools and the right problem can ship genuinely useful software in six weeks. We're investing in that conviction by giving the role real ownership, real stakes, and real exposure to how aerospace products actually get made. What you'll do Weeks 1-2: Discover and plan. You'll be onboarded into our environment, complete required security and compliance training, spend time on the factory floor seeing how aerospace components actually get built, and meet the business stakeholders whose problem you'll be solving. By the end of week two, you will present a written plan to senior leadership covering the problem, your proposed solution, the architecture, the technology choices, the security considerations, the risks, and the timeline. Leadership will challenge your scope and approve the work. Weeks 3-4: Build. You'll develop your application using AI-assisted development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or similar) in a sandboxed development environment with synthetic test data. You'll meet with your business sponsor and SMEs regularly to validate your assumptions and demo progress. Your code will live in our GitHub organization and follow our development practices. Weeks 5-6: Test, harden, and ship. You'll promote your application into our production environment, where it will be tested against real data with real users. You'll run user acceptance testing, fix what surfaces, write the operational documentation that lets the business maintain the tool after you leave, train the actual users, and present your finished work to leadership. You will ship to production. Real people will use what you build. What we provide

• A meaningful business problem with real stakeholders who want the outcome
• Direct access to senior business leaders and subject-matter experts
• Modern AI-assisted development tooling, properly configured for our environment
• A dedicated development environment that lets you work with the best available tools
• Mentorship from a business sponsor and a contract CISO
• Exposure to how aerospace products are actually designed, manufactured, and certified
• Real production deployment with real users
• Honest feedback on your work What we're looking for This program is built for someone who wants to be challenged. We are not looking for someone who wants a comfortable, structured introduction to industry. We are looking for someone who is ready to own an outcome. Required
• Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field — or equivalent demonstrated ability through bootcamp, self-taught work, or shipped projects
• Comfort writing code in at least one modern language (we work primarily in the Microsoft stack — C#/.NET, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript — but we care more about your ability to learn than your current language)
• Practical experience using AI-assisted coding tools to build real things, not just to answer homework questions
• Experience with Git and GitHub
• Strong written and verbal communication — you will be presenting to executives and translating between technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Ability to scope work realistically and finish what you start
• U.S. person status as defined under ITAR (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)) What will set you apart
• Evidence that you've shipped something real — a project used by people other than yourself, an internship where you owned a meaningful piece of work, an open-source contribution that landed
• A thoughtful point of view on how to use AI coding tools well — and how not to
• Experience working with non-technical stakeholders to define what to build
• Curiosity about manufacturing, aerospace, or how physical things get made
• Comfort with ambiguity and a track record of figuring things out without being told What this program is not for
• Candidates looking for a structured environment with a defined ladder and senior engineers reviewing every PR
• Candidates who want to work primarily on novel research problems or greenfield distributed systems
• Candidates uncomfortable with the possibility that their project may not work out perfectly — failure is a real possibility, and how you handle it matters more than avoiding it
• Candidates not prepared to work on-site in Bingen, Washington for the duration of the program Honest expectations Some of what you build may not survive past your internship.

Some of it might. Either way, you will have shipped real software in a regulated environment, presented to executives, worked alongside people who build things you can touch, and navigated the kind of ambiguity that defines actual engineering work. That is the value we are offering, and we think it's worth a great deal. This is a new program, and you would be our first intern. We plan to run it twice a year going forward, and what you build, learn, and recommend will shape what the program becomes for those who follow. Logistics

Duration:

Six weeks, July 13 to August 21, 2026

Location:

On-site at Zepher Inc., Bingen, Washington

Compensation:

$1,000 per week

Schedule:

Standard business hours, Monday through Friday How to apply Applications must be submitted through Indeed and include: A resume A short note (no more than one page) telling us about something you've built, why you built it, what you'd do differently, and why this program interests you A link to a GitHub profile, portfolio, or any work you'd like us to see We read every application personally. We are more interested in what you've actually done and how you think than in where you go to school or what your GPA is. Zepher Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the communities we serve and the customers we support.

Pay:

$1,000.00 per week

Work Location:

In person