The D. E. Shaw group seeks a highly motivated summer intern to join its DESCOvery team's venture studio. The DESCOvery team ideates, researches, and builds innovative, technology-driven businesses. Over the summer, the intern will own an end-to-end venture exploration in a specific market, developing a deep understanding of the market and its participants, identifying and validating an attractive customer problem, and building a working prototype of a potential solution.
This program will take place in New York and is expected to run from June to August 2027. What you’ll do day-to-day Most of the internship will center on a single venture exploration. Working closely with members of the DESCOvery team, the intern will: Develop expertise in a specific market through research, including analyzing industry structure, market size, competitive dynamics, emerging technologies, and existing solutions.
Speak directly with prospective customers and industry participants to understand their workflows, pain points, and unmet needs. Identify and evaluate business opportunities based on market attractiveness, strength of customer need, competitive landscape, and technical feasibility. Translate research and customer insights into a product thesis and determine what solution could meaningfully address the identified problem.
Design and build a working prototype or proof of concept, using modern development tools, APIs, and AI technologies where appropriate. Test the prototype and underlying assumptions with potential users and incorporate their feedback into subsequent iterations. Synthesize findings into a recommendation about the opportunity and present the research, prototype, and conclusions to members of the DESCOvery team. In addition to the primary venture project, the intern will: Spend approximately 15% of the internship independently exploring a self-selected business or product idea, applying a similar entrepreneurial approach to a compelling problem or market.
Shadow leaders of DESCOvery portfolio companies to see firsthand how early-stage businesses are built and run, including how executives approach product, customers, hiring, strategy, and other operating decisions. What we’re looking for Currently pursuing a bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, engineering, applied mathematics, data science, or another technical or quantitative field. An excellent technical foundation and demonstrated interest in building, displayed through independent side projects, applications, prototypes, startups, or other technical products developed outside of coursework.
Familiarity with modern software development and AI tools. Experience with LLMs, APIs, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or related technologies is a plus, though demonstrated technical curiosity and an ability to learn quickly matter more than experience with any particular technology stack. Keen commercial curiosity and an interest in learning how businesses work, including investigating markets, speaking with users, assessing business models, and evaluating whether a technically feasible product addresses a meaningful customer need.
Comfort moving between technical and commercial work, from conducting customer interviews and market analysis to writing code and building prototypes. A bias toward action and experimentation, with the ability to navigate ambiguous problems, determine what needs to be learned, and translate insights into tangible outputs. Excellent analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills, along with an impressive record of academic and extracurricular achievement.
Experience with startups, entrepreneurial projects, hackathons, research, or other zero-to-one environments is a plus. The position offers a monthly base salary of $13,000, overtime pay, a competitive sign-on bonus, travel coverage to and from the internship, and a choice of furnished summer housing or a $10,000 housing allowance. It also includes a $3,300 stipend for self-study materials and a $4,000 stipend for personal technology equipment.
If you have any questions about compensation, please ask one of our recruiters.
Job description provided by D. E. Shaw & Co..
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