FIRST ORDER EFFECTS
Operations Engineering Intern
Infrastructure for the Autonomous Era · First in. First up.
On-site · Austin, TX · Paid: $20–$35/hour (depending on experience) · Flexible 2–6 month term - a semester, a co-op, or the rest of your summer
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Who We Are
First Order Effects (FOE) is building America's Infrastructure Prime for the robotic era. Autonomous ships, drones, and robots are rewriting how the world moves, fights, and builds - but none of them work without infrastructure to power them, connect them, and launch and recover them. That's what we build.
We've Built Cutting Edge Systems at Legendary Companies
Our team comes from SpaceX, Anduril, Saronic, Lockheed Skunk Works, Forterra, and Fuse Energy. Before founding FOE, we built satellite ground stations that closed a national comms gap in days, deployed multi-megawatt power systems at commercial speed, and shipped autonomous surface vessels into Navy fleet production. We've built infrastructure at lightspeed before - now we're applying that playbook to an entire company.
As an intern here, you won't be six layers away from the people who did those things. You'll be right alongside them.
The Role
Operations engineering is the connective tissue between a CAD model and hardware sitting on a beach doing its job. You'll help us build, test, and deploy real systems - and help build the machine that builds them: the tooling, processes, supply chain, and test infrastructure a seed-stage hardware company needs to move fast without breaking the wrong things.
This is not a shadowing program. You will own real work with real deadlines, and what you touch will ship.
What You'll Do
Build real hardware. Assembly, integration, and test of MESH Box and SURGE systems - mechanical, electrical, and everything in between.
Own projects end-to-end. Scope it, design it, build it, test it, write it up. Fixtures, jigs, test rigs, harnesses, ground support equipment.
Run tests. Write test procedures, instrument hardware, collect data, and tell us what it means - in the shop and at the waterfront.
Wrangle the supply chain. Source parts, chase vendors, drive procurement, and keep the build moving when a component is three weeks late.
Unblock engineers. If it's slowing the team down - a missing tool, a broken process, a spreadsheet that should be a script - you fix it.
Whatever the mission needs. Seed-stage means the org chart is a suggestion. The interesting problems go to whoever grabs them.
What We're Looking For
Pursuing a degree in mechanical, electrical, aerospace, industrial, or a related engineering field.
Evidence you build things outside of class: FSAE, rocketry, robotics, solar car, a shop job, a garage project that got out of hand. Show us, don't tell us.
Raw horsepower, judgment, ownership, and execution. These matter more than your GPA or which classes you've taken.
Comfort with ambiguity. You'd rather be handed a problem than a procedure.
Willingness to get your hands dirty - literally. Warehouses, waterfronts, weather.
Command of English at a CEFR Level C1 (C2 Preferred). Bonus points for speaking a second language fluently.
ITAR Requirements:
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Why FOE
Real ownership, real hardware, real deployments. Your work goes on systems headed for the water, not into a slide deck.
Seed-stage leverage. Everything is being built for the first time. The systems you set up become how the company works.
Learn from people who've done it. Daily, direct access to engineers from SpaceX, Anduril, Saronic, and Skunk Works.
Paid, flexible, and real. $20–$35/hour depending on experience. Semester, co-op, or summer - we'll build a 2–6 month window that works with your program.
A path forward. Crush it here and there's a return offer or a full-time conversation waiting.
This Is Not a Normal Internship
We're a small team moving very fast on a mission that matters. Some days are CAD and spreadsheets; some days are a 4 a.m. drive to the waterfront to catch a tide window. We optimize for signal over noise. If you want a structured rotation program with a polished intern curriculum, this isn't it. If you want to find out what you're capable of when someone hands you something real, it is.
FOE is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with FOE is governed on the basis of 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.
How to Apply
Send your resume and three bullet points demonstrating evidence of exceptional ability via our careers portal (https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/firstordereffects ). Projects, wins, things you shipped - whatever proves it. A founder will personally read every application.
Sovereignty is built, not declared — come build it with us.
Mechanical Engineering (1)