The Engineering Fellowship at Tools for Humanity supports builders early in their careers who want to take on real responsibility and contribute to products at global scale.
We believe the fastest way to learn is to build real things alongside people who hold a high bar. Fellows work directly with engineers, product managers, designers, operations and research teams across the organization. What you ship runs in the real world, supporting global deployments, live users and systems that need to be reliable and well-designed from day one.
Who we look for
We look for builders who take ownership naturally– people who learn by doing, move quickly from problem to solution and care deeply about craft. You should be comfortable operating in ambiguity, asking good questions and pushing toward clarity without waiting for perfect instructions. You don’t need to know everything on day one; what matters is your drive to figure things out, take feedback seriously and raise the bar for yourself and the products you touch.
“I shipped software used to manufacture our Orbs, addressing a major bottleneck that was blocking the path to mass production. Shipping this project to production and helping scale manufacturing made it clear this wasn’t a typical intern role, and it pushed me to take real responsibility and grow into a better engineer.”
Christos Galanis, Orb Software Engineer, Tools for Humanity
"From the very beginning, I was given full ownership of an electronics board and redesigned it to support lower-cost components, directly reducing product cost and solving real supply-chain constraints. The hardware I designed as a student was going straight into the final product, and I was fully accountable for it. The mentorship was exceptional, working hands-on with world-class engineers and breaking down physics and circuit theory late into the night. I never imagined an experience with this level of ownership and growth."
Pei-Yi, Electronics Engineer, Tools for Humanity
“I shipped real products from day one. My main fellowship project was building a system to manage software roll outs across our global device fleet. I had a high level of ownership, direct trust from my team and the freedom to try, fail and learn fast. Tools for Humanity is intense, but if you’re a builder who wants to do meaningful work, push yourself, and work alongside world-class people, it’s absolutely worth it.”
Takis Kakalis, Software Engineer, Tools for Humanity
FAQ
Fellows are treated like team members, not interns: you own production work and are accountable for outcomes. Fellows who perform strongly typically join Tools for Humanity full-time at or shortly after the end of the fellowship.
The fellowship is designed for builders early in their careers who have already taken something from idea to a working product. That might be software, hardware, a research prototype, or a complex system you helped design or operate.
What matters most is not the domain, but that you can clearly explain what you built, defend the choices you made, and what you learned when things didn’t work out at first.
If you’re a graduating senior, recent graduate, or early-career engineer (2024–2026) who is eager to take on real responsibility and accelerate your growth by building alongside exceptional teams, we invite you to apply.
No. This is a full-time fellowship. You can’t be actively enrolled.
The fellowship runs for a period of 3 to 6 months, with flexibility based on team needs and individual fit.
All fellowships are based in San Francisco and are in-person.
We believe building together accelerates impact. We offer relocation support and provide immigration assistance where applicable.
The salary for this role is $18,000 monthly. Benefits are included.
We assess how you think about real engineering challenges, what you’ve built, and how you approach unfamiliar problems. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
Projects are defined collaboratively with your manager based on team priorities and your strengths. You’ll have agency in how the work is approached and executed.
Fellows are supported by a dedicated mentor and are embedded within an active product or engineering team. Your mentor is there to help you navigate technical decisions, develop judgment, and understand how high-impact work gets done at scale.
Being embedded on an engineering team means you’re learning the organization from the inside: how we collaborate, how decisions are made, and how ideas turn into globally deployed products. You’ll gain exposure across functions, have opportunities to take on broader ownership and expand your professional network within the company and beyond.