Research Engineer (Internship/Co-Op)

About Crater

Crater is a next generation email client that predicts the emails you want to read, and the actions you want to take, before you think to do them.

We strongly believe that the most durable, interesting problems to work on are those that convert "user preference feedback-loops" into actions. We also believe that email, as a source of context for billions of people, remains an underrated place to build product.

The Role

We're expanding our founding team with research engineering interns who will work closely with us on our intuitive inbox recommendation algorithm and hybrid search improvements. Backgrounds in tooling, eval-driven development, or product experience through coursework, personal projects, or previous internships are highly favored but nothing is a must.

As an intern, you'll contribute to our long-term vision of using email ranking as a proxy for understanding what matters to people, helping build an interface for managing "agents" that improve your life.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with our team of less than 8 to contribute to and learn about either:

  1. "Intuitive inbox" ranking algorithm for email, or

  2. Central RLHF loop on hybrid search

• Participate in eval-driven development, experimentation, and testing in production

• Work in an engineering-first organization with direct access to founders and technical leadership

Required Skills

We're looking for students who have demonstrated technical ability through course projects, hackathons, personal projects, or previous internships. Whether you're interested in research, infra, or client work, we value candidates who think about users when making technical decisions.

We're a small, talent-dense, lean team where you'll get significant exposure to recommendations, search, and product development.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $120-150k annualized/cash compensation (prorated for internship duration)

• Housing: Covered, plus $1500 housing stipend for short-term rentals in San Francisco within walking distance from office

• Transportation: Covered

• All Work Hour Meals: Covered

• Work Schedule: 6 days a week in North Beach office

• Duration: 4-month internship program

Apply
To apply, fill out this form and/or email hello@crater.so with your resume, and link to portfolio/relevant projects, and include “Research Engineering Internship” in the subject line.

We’re excited to meet curious, ambitious students who want to build what comes next.