Instead is a company revolutionizing tax work with its AI-powered platform. They are seeking Software Engineering Interns to join their San Francisco team, where interns will build real features and gain hands-on experience in a dynamic environment.
Responsibilities
Ship product features end to end on our live customer platform alongside senior engineers
Build and test AI-powered components including inference pipelines and prompt engineering
Fix bugs and make product improvements based on real customer feedback
Create internal tools that make the engineering team more productive
Learn our full stack and contribute across frontend, backend, and AI layers
Participate in code reviews, architecture discussions, and product planning
Qualification
Required
Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
Strong programming fundamentals. You can write clean code, debug efficiently, and think about edge cases
Familiarity with web development (frontend or backend). Experience with any modern framework counts
Curiosity about AI and willingness to learn
High attention to detail and a bias for shipping
Ability to work on-site in San Francisco
Preferred
Experience with AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) is a plus
You've built and shipped side projects or open-source contributions that demonstrate your ability to go from idea to working product
You already use AI tools in your coding workflow and understand how they change the way software gets built
You learn fast and don't wait to be told what to do. When you see something broken, you fix it
You care about the end user, not just the code. You want to understand why something matters before you build it
You're excited about working at a startup where your work ships to real customers on day one
Benefits
Instead is a micro-donation application that allows its users to purchase less and give the remaining proceeds to charity.
