Software Engineering Intern

About the Ethereum Foundation

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) is a global non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Ethereum and related technologies. Our mission is to do what is best for Ethereum’s long-term success. Our role is to allocate resources to critical projects, to be a valued voice within the Ethereum ecosystem, and to advocate for Ethereum to the outside world.

About the role

Join our mission to build and safeguard the Ethereum protocol. Interns will work alongside leading experts at the Ethereum Foundation and across the ecosystem, contributing to critical projects that advance the protocol, improve network security, enhance tooling, and push the boundaries of blockchain technology. This role is an exceptional opportunity to gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge engineering while shaping the future of Ethereum.

Interns can choose to either work remotely, or in one of the EF offices, in Boulder (USA) or Berlin (Germany). In addition, interns will be invited for an in-person cohort meetup in the summer.

The internship is 12 weeks during summer 2025. Interns will be hired to one of the following projects.

• The Portal Network is a new networking design for Ethereum that aims to solve the data availability problem for “light” nodes without having to trust or put extra strain on full nodes, by sharing the necessary data in small chunks across the network.
• Ethereum Execution Spec Tests (EEST) project is responsible for the Ethereum protocol reference tests, used by all clients to detect consensus issues during new hard-fork implementations and regressions. The team also takes care of maintaining and improving the tooling, frameworks, documentation and guidance required to facilitate the client developers with the consumption of the tests, which includes the EEST, the legacy ethereum/tests repository, and also integration tests in the form of various hive simulators.
• The Ethereum Execution Layer Specification (EELS) project is responsible for the main Ethereum protocol reference specification written in Python, which aims towards replacing the yellow-paper specification and being a crucial aid to the EIP process in order to provide a prototyping framework for new updates.
• Go-ethereum (geth) is as a Golang implementation of the Ethereum execution layer.
• The Account Abstraction team focuses on the development, growth and coordination efforts related to account abstraction and chain abstraction, which started via the ERC-4337 standard, and continue through additional standards and protocol level changes on L1 as well as L2s. It is responsible for research and development of various components and standards of account abstraction, chain abstraction and cross-L2 communication. It also supports entities in the ecosystem that are building on top of these standards, while advocating for their overall adoption in the space through education, conferences, grants and other growth strategies.
• The Protocol Security Research team safeguards Ethereum’s integrity. Through coordination, meticulous code reviews, research, developing advanced tooling, and real-world simulations, we focus on securing the network and its critical components. Our hands-on approach includes managing the bug bounty program, continuously monitoring the network, and collaborating with client teams. We’re committed to identifying and mitigating risks to Ethereum mainnet.

• Collaborate with Ethereum Foundation teams to develop, test, and maintain tools, protocols, and specifications.
• Contribute to projects such as client development, testing frameworks, protocol design, and security auditing.
• Assist in developing and documenting standards and protocols for Ethereum and its ecosystem.
• Conduct research and simulations to address critical technical challenges in areas like security, data availability, and scalability.
• Contribute to open-source codebases and participate in technical discussions and reviews.

• Currently pursuing a degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience in one or more of the following areas: cybersecurity, mechanism design, cryptography, distributed systems, or smart contract development.
• Proficiency in relevant programming languages, such as Go, Rust, Python, or Solidity.
• Familiarity with Ethereum projects, protocols, and tooling, such as go-ethereum, hive, ERC-4337, or the EVM.
• Strong communication skills and a passion for open-source collaboration.