What are the responsibilities and job description for the Robotics Software Engineer - Winter 2026 Internship position at Medra?
About the Role:
Paid Winter 2026 Internship (Jan. - Apr., dates flexible). Candidates must work full-time, in-person at our San Francisco office located in the Mission.
What We're Building:
We have been quietly building the foundational layers of our Physical AI Scientist platform:
🤖 Physical AI that can operate scientific instruments with human-level dexterity.
🧪 Scientific AI that can analyze results, reason about next steps, and close the loop autonomously.
This is an incredibly ambitious mission, but we believe that a team of ambitious people with high ownership can accomplish incredible things.
The Team:
- We’re a team of passionate, mission-driven engineers from companies like Tesla, Amazon, SpaceX, and Neuralink. We’re collaborative and love moving fast, both with our product and on team trips skiing or go-karting!
- As a team, we love nerding out about engineering and robotics — plus other topics like race cars or cooking. We like learning new things and then sharing our new knowledge with each other.
- Our team is opinionated and straightforward. We don’t mind intense discussions about design tradeoffs. If we have arguments or miscommunication, we resolve conflicts quickly and empathetically.
In this role, you will:
- Intern in our Robotics Software Engineering team, focusing on building the robots we use to accelerate science
Let's talk if you have:
- A hacker’s mindset - getting quickly to a good-enough solution
- Proficient in Python
- Willingness to wear many hats / a flexible attitude towards responsibilities and scope
- Ability to move fast in an environment where things are sometimes loosely defined and you may have competing priorities or deadlines.
- Passion for learning and expanding your skillset
Nice to have:
- Experience or familiarity with robot arm manipulators
- Relevant research/work experience in one or more of the following areas: motion planning and trajectory optimization, kinematics and dynamics, and control.
- Experience with software engineering tools and best practices in production
This position is 100% in-person, you must be able to come on-site to our San Francisco office.
Medra is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies. We value diversity at Medra and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!