Software Engineering Intern (Embedded, Backend, Fullstack)

Parallel Systems is pioneering autonomous battery-electric rail vehicles designed to transform freight transportation by shifting portions of the $900 billion U.S. trucking industry onto rail. Our innovative technology offers cleaner, safer, and more efficient logistics solutions. Join our dynamic team and help shape a smarter, greener future for global freight. Software Engineering Interns Parallel Systems is seeking Software Engineering Interns to help build the software that runs our vehicles and the platform behind our fleet. This is a hands-on role for someone who wants to ship real work. Your code will run on prototype vehicles, on test benches, or in the services and tools our team and operators rely on every day. Interns are placed on a vehicle software or backend/full-stack project based on their background and team priorities. You will own a scoped project from requirements through delivery, work closely with a mentor, and see your work tested on real hardware or used by real users. The right person is curious beyond their own layer. Whether you are writing firmware, building a service, or shipping an internal tool, you will learn how software, hardware, and vehicle data fit together, and you will be comfortable debugging across those boundaries. What You Will Work On You will contribute to a specific project scoped to team priorities. Example areas include: • Vehicle control software: writing and testing code for braking, drivetrain, actuators, and power systems on microcontrollers or embedded Linux • Vehicle communications: developing and validating interfaces across CAN, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, or UART, including bench debugging • Sensor and diagnostics integration: bringing up onboard sensors and devices used for telemetry, health monitoring, and vehicle operation • Fleet and telemetry services: building services and data pipelines that ingest, store, and serve data from vehicles in the field • Fleet operations tools: building APIs and web applications used to monitor, dispatch, and manage vehicles • Developer and test infrastructure: improving CI/CD, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, deployment, and observability for the software team Regardless of project, you will work through a structured engineering lifecycle: requirements review, design, implementation, testing, and documentation of results. What to Expect • Weeks 1-2: Onboarding, vehicle and software platform architecture overview, development environment setup, lab and shop orientation, codebase familiarization, and a first starter task • Weeks 3-4: Project assignment, review of requirements and interfaces, and initial design and debugging work with your mentor • Weeks 5-7: Core implementation, testing on the bench or in staging, and iteration through code and design reviews • Weeks 8-10: Integration onto prototype vehicles or into production systems, test execution, issue investigation, and participation in team design reviews • Weeks 11-12: Final validation and handoff, documentation of findings and recommended next steps, and a presentation of results to the broader engineering team Progress will be tracked through weekly check-ins with your mentor, design and code reviews, and feedback from the broader engineering team. Basic Requirements • Currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field • Hands-on software experience through internships, student teams, research, coursework, or personal projects • Strong programming skills in at least one language such as Rust, C, C++, Python, Go, or TypeScript • A track record of building software that works in the real world, not only in class assignments or simulation • Strong problem-solving skills a