What are the responsibilities and job description for the Software Engineer Intern (Summer 2026) position at Northwood?
About Northwood:
Northwood is on a mission to transform connectivity between earth and space and bring the benefits of space to the masses through innovations in space communications technologies. If you like building quickly and seeing your work deployed in locations around the globe with real impact, we want you at Northwood.
Role:
Northwood is seeking a motivated Software Engineer Intern for Summer 2026 with a strong interest in networking and scalable distributed systems. As a Software Engineering intern at Northwood, you’ll support the design, implementation, and optimization of data movement within our global ground station network infrastructure. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to help build innovative solutions that ensure reliability, efficiency, and scalability across our systems.
Responsibilities:
Compensation is determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay are determined on a base-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, and technical capabilities. In addition to the base salary, Northwood Space offers long-term incentives such as company stock, stock options, and cash awards, as well as a discretionary bonus for performance. Northwood Space benefits include equity, health care, unlimited vacation, retirement savings and professional development.
Additional Information:
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Northwood Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Northwood Space is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Northwood is on a mission to transform connectivity between earth and space and bring the benefits of space to the masses through innovations in space communications technologies. If you like building quickly and seeing your work deployed in locations around the globe with real impact, we want you at Northwood.
Role:
Northwood is seeking a motivated Software Engineer Intern for Summer 2026 with a strong interest in networking and scalable distributed systems. As a Software Engineering intern at Northwood, you’ll support the design, implementation, and optimization of data movement within our global ground station network infrastructure. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to help build innovative solutions that ensure reliability, efficiency, and scalability across our systems.
Responsibilities:
- Assist in defining secure and scalable interfaces for payload data transfer, focusing on simplicity and extensibility
- Work with teams to support the design and implementation of Northwood’s data plane, integrating on-premises and cloud environments for low-latency, high-throughput data distribution
- Participate in developing, testing, and maintaining data movement and processing pipelines capable of managing large volumes of data
- Contribute to creating a system that is observable, fault-tolerant, and reliable to meet Northwood’s uptime requirements
- Gain hands-on experience with networking devices and protocols
- Collaborate with other software, network, and FPGA engineers to optimize Northwood’s hybrid network and software deployments for performance and scalability
- Currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
- Knowledge of programming languages such as Rust, C , Golang
- Interest in systems programming, networking protocols (such as TCP/IP), and distributed systems
- Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) is a plus
- Exposure to continuous integration, deployment, or containerization tools (Docker, Terraform) is beneficial
- Strong problem-solving skills, with an eagerness to learn and grow in a collaborative environment
Compensation is determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay are determined on a base-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, and technical capabilities. In addition to the base salary, Northwood Space offers long-term incentives such as company stock, stock options, and cash awards, as well as a discretionary bonus for performance. Northwood Space benefits include equity, health care, unlimited vacation, retirement savings and professional development.
Additional Information:
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Northwood Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Northwood Space is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
