Software Engineering Intern, Freeform
Summer 2026
The compensation for this role is $34/hour
Offers relocation assistance
5+ days a week in office (Hawthorne, CA)
Metal 3D printing factories
Be an early applicant
Metal 3D printing factories
21-100 employees
Be an early applicant
The compensation for this role is $34/hour
Offers relocation assistance
5+ days a week in office (Hawthorne, CA)
21-100 employees
Company mission
To make the transformative power of 3D printing available to all industries at scale and unlock the future of innovation.
Role
Who you are
- 3D printing experience is not required to be successful here - rather we look for smart, motivated, collaborative engineers who love solving hard problems and creating amazing technology!
- Currently enrolled in a bachelor’s degree in computer science or computer engineering from an ABET accredited university or college
- Internship or engineering club experience such as FSAE, Baja SAE, solar car, rocket club, robotics club, or similar programming with C/C++
Desirable
- Advanced degree (Master's, PhD) in computer science or computer engineering
- Experience interfacing with microcontrollers, FPGA, or GPU computing hardware
- Experience developing embedded or real-time software systems
- Experience writing software for industrial automation systems, robotics, or related hardware
- Experience working in a Linux environment
- Comfortable working in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and iterating quickly (comfortable building the plane as we fly it)
- Strong communicator who collaborates across disciplines and proactively seeks support when needed
- Willing to take ownership of tasks big and small, with a hands-on, problem-solving mindset
- Strong work ethic with a refuse-to-fail mindset
- Demonstrated indicators of excellence and/or achieving success against adversity (i.e. top academic performance, leadership in engineering clubs, first-generation college student, or other examples of resilience and achievement)
What the job involves
- As a Software Engineering Intern at Freeform, you’ll help build the core software systems that power our autonomous metal 3D printing factories
- You’ll work with a talented engineering team from some of the world’s most innovative companies across a range of projects to develop and maintain mission-critical infrastructure - including controls, high speed data acquisition, and geometry processing pipelines - that enable high-speed, high-quality, and fully automated production
- This is a hands-on role where you’ll contribute to real-world solutions that bridge software and hardware, and gain exposure to a fast-paced, multidisciplinary engineering environment
- You’ll be encouraged to take a first-principles approach to problem solving, explore new technical domains, and collaborate across teams to help bring complex systems to life
- You'll support the design and development of software for advanced, production-scale metal 3D printing systems
- Collaborate with process, control, and mechanical engineers to help integrate control algorithms into production software
- Assist in improving and scaling high-rate data acquisition, storage, and retrieval systems
- Contribute to the development of the software pipeline that converts customer part geometries into machine-ready print instructions
Application process
- Please note that our interview process will begin after we attend university career fairs in early fall
- The process will include 2-3 rounds of virtual interviews
- We anticipate wrapping up the interview process by late October/early November
Our take
There is a huge amount of demand for precision metal fabrication in future-focused industries such as rocketry and vehicle manufacturing, but legacy production techniques are too slow and inflexible to meet the requirements of rapidly changing designs in the most innovative firms. Enter Freeform Future, a company which builds metal 3D printing factories to allow manufacturers to swiftly and efficiently go from idea to mass production.
Founded by engineers with extensive experience at SpaceX, Freeform seeks to replace existing metal fabrication works - typified with heavy reliance on manual labour and legacy processes - with 3D printers and automated software technologies. Rather than needing to train a large workforce on production techniques, Freeform will be able to print almost any metal item at production scale on demand, with a turnaround time of days rather than weeks.
Though having only emerged from stealth in 2023, Freeform has some large-scale customers including autonomous trucking firm Embark and rocket part manufacturer, Ursa Major. After raising significant funding in early 2023, the company is moving from prototype to production, scaling up its operations to meet the growing demand for rapidly produced, high-quality metal components.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
57% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Oct 2024
$14m
EARLY VC
Feb 2023
$45m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $59m
Company benefits
- Significant stock option packages
- 100% employer-paid Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance (premium PPO and HMO options)
- Life insurance
- Traditional and Roth 401(k)
- Relocation assistance provided
- Paid vacation, sick leave, and company holidays
- Generous Paid Parental Leave and extended transition back to work for the birthing parent
- Free daily catered lunch and dinner, and fully stocked kitchenette
- Casual dress, flexible work hours, and regular catered team building events
Company HQ
Hawthorne, CA
Leadership
Erik Palitsch
(CEO)Previously was Propulsion Development Manager at SpaceX. Before that was a Solid Propulsion Systems Engineer for NASA.
Thomas Ronacher
(President)Before co-founding Freeform, was VP Hardware Engineering at Hyperloop One and Thermal System Lead for Virgin Galactic. Prior to that was Principal Design Engineer with Seal Science and Senior Propulsion Analyst at SpaceX.
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