Internship Program
Summer 2026.
Overview
Internship programs only pay back when the work is real. Toy projects produce toy interns; ticket-shaped projects produce ticket-shaped engineers. The Nova framework, when we run our first cohort, is built around real ownership of real shipped work with appropriate guardrails. We are bootstrapped today and the first cohort is targeted for Summer 2026.
- Real project ownership. Interns own a project end-to-end, scoped to be challenging but completable in 10-12 weeks; the cost of toy projects is they teach toy lessons.
- Mentorship with protected time. Each intern has a dedicated engineering mentor whose calendar is protected for that intern.
- Production exposure with review. Interns ship to production with appropriate code review and roll-back paths; this is how real engineering is learned.
- Conversion path and customer context. Strong interns receive return offers; where appropriate they sit in on customer calls so they understand the why behind the work.
The approach
Project-first scoping, real review, and mid-program calibration. Interns who ship come out of programs that respect their time as engineering time, not as evaluation time.
- Project-first scoping. Each project is scoped before recruiting starts; matching intern to project is more reliable than backfilling project after hire.
- Real-stake code review. The same review bar as full-time engineers; nominal review teaches nothing useful.
- Mid-program check-in. Halfway through, both intern and mentor write a one-page assessment in both directions; catches issues while there is still time.
- Final presentation. Interns present to the team; communication practice is part of the program, not an afterthought.
Why this compounds
The program compounds across cohorts: alumni return as full-time hires, mentors level up by teaching, and the company builds a campus presence that no recruiting agency replicates.
- Hiring pipeline. Strong interns return as full-time hires the year after; the program is the highest-conversion top-of-funnel for new-grad hiring.
- Team mentorship muscle. Mentors practice explaining; senior engineers grow into staff engineers by teaching.
- Brand investment. Interns return to campus and tell peers; the next cohort's applicant pool follows.
- Real shipped work. Interns ship features that customers eventually use; the program produces business value during the summer, not just after.
If you are an early-career engineer who wants real ownership of meaningful work in observability and AIOps, watch the careers page for the Summer 2026 cohort. We hire deliberately; the discipline applies to interns just as much as to full-time engineers.