Venture Studio (Startup Incubator) Intern (New York) - Summer 2027

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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.

Equal opportunity

The D. E. Shaw group is an equal opportunity employer. The applicable annual base salary or hourly rate paid to a successful applicant will be determined based on multiple factors, including without limitation the nature and extent of prior experience and educational background. European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), California, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Shanghai candidates should refer to the corresponding linked privacy notice. The D. E.

Shaw group may collect, use, hold, transfer, and process candidates’ resumes and associated information (including personal information contained therein) for purposes reasonably related to their application, including without limitation: review and management of employment applications and supporting materials; administration and management of offers to and communication with candidates; and administration, management, and improvement of the recruiting operations of the D. E.

Shaw group; and/or where reasonably required in connection with a proposed sale, spin-out, reorganization, or outsourcing of all or some of the business of the D. E. Shaw group. The D. E. Shaw group will not use such information for purposes unrelated to the foregoing, such as direct marketing of third-party products to candidates, without candidate consent.

As used herein, the term “personal information” is meant to broadly describe information identifying or relating to a specific individual; it is intended to encompass “personal data,” “sensitive personal data,” and “personally identifiable information” and similar terms, as those terms are defined by law in the jurisdictions in which the D. E. Shaw group operates. The D. E. Shaw group may transfer such personal information within and outside the country and jurisdiction of the locations where the D. E. Shaw group maintains offices, to other D. E.

Shaw group affiliates, to government and regulatory authorities, and to third parties which provide or may provide support and/or services to the D. E. Shaw group and for the purposes set forth above. The persons who may have access to this personal information are other employees of the D. E. Shaw group, in connection with the performance of their duties of employment, and the other parties listed above, in connection with the business of the D. E.

Shaw group. (Of course, candidates will be considered for employment opportunities only in those countries in which they express interest.) The D. E. Shaw group will use reasonable care to maintain the confidentiality of personal information (including appropriate technical measures against unauthorized or unlawful processing and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, such information) and will retain such data as required by applicable law or regulation.

Candidates have the right to request access to, and correction of, their personal information in accordance with applicable law; any such request should be submitted to recruiting-inquiries@deshaw.com. Candidates who have submitted a resume to the D. E. Shaw group and do not wish to proceed with their applications should email cvwithdraw@deshaw.com.

Personal information of candidates who have been the subject of background checks may have been transferred in accordance with applicable regulations, and any concerns with such transfers should be submitted to backgroundcheck-inquiries@deshaw.com. The D. E. Shaw group may retain candidates’ information for prospective recruiting activities, including sourcing candidates for employment opportunities and for organizing events with prospective candidates, in accordance with our internal data retention procedures.

Candidates who do not agree to such future use should email recruiting-inquiries@deshaw.com.