Software Engineer Intern (Summer 2027)

State Affairs is the nation’s leading news and policy intelligence platform focused on state governments. We combine nonpartisan coverage of Statehouses across the country alongside state government data and AI-native tools into a singular platform.

We inform and empower decision makers, policy professionals and citizens through our award-winning journalism and data – delivering profound insights to help our customers decode and act on state politics and policy. We’re building a category-defining business that will reshape America as we strengthen visibility into what’s happening and why at the state level.

As a Software Engineering Intern, you’ll join our engineering team in Washington, DC and ship real features to real users, not side projects. You’ll work across the full stack: React/Next.js interfaces, Node APIs, and Postgres data models that keep up with petabyte-scale content. One sprint you might help prototype a semantic-search UI backed by vector embeddings. The next, you might build part of a real-time collaboration layer that lets policy analysts co-author annotations and compare version histories without refreshing the page.

As a Software Engineering Intern, you will:

- Ship vertical product slices with your mentor and team: Figma wireframe, React component, Node handler, SQL/Mongo query, deployed on AWS via Docker and GitHub Actions.

- Help build fast, delightful data workflows such as instant search, real-time diffing and collaborative annotation, with sub-200 ms interactions over large datasets.

- Work with design and product on thin-slice scoping, experiment flags and measuring customer outcomes.

- Instrument and improve your work with dashboards, structured logs and feature-flag rollouts, and join our blameless post-mortems.

- Practice product craftsmanship through Storybook-driven UI, shared design tokens, and code reviews that coach rather than gatekeep.

- Use AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) every day to speed up coding and debugging.

Essential Qualifications for this position include:

- Currently pursuing a bachelor’s or graduate degree in computer science, computer engineering or a related field

- Expected graduation in December 2027 or May 2028

- Experience building web applications through coursework, internships, research, hackathons or personal projects

- Familiarity with React (or a similar frontend framework) and Node.js (or another backend language)

- Working knowledge of SQL and relational database design (e.g., Postgres)

- Ability to break an open-ended problem into concrete milestones and to communicate progress clearly

- Must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future employer sponsorship

Preferred qualifications

- Experience with Next.js, TypeScript or MongoDB

- Exposure to Docker, CI/CD (e.g., GitHub Actions) or a cloud platform (AWS preferred)

- Interest in or exposure to search, vector databases, RAG or other AI/ML-driven features

- Projects using data visualization (D3, Recharts) or rich-text editors (Slate, TipTap)

- Prior internship, startup or significant open-source experience

- Experience using LLM coding tools in your own projects

This is an onsite work opportunity and our teams operate from the Washington, DC office (located at L and 15th St. NW). State Affairs offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package to employees.

The salary for this role as it is posted is $9,000 - $10,000 per month for candidates working from a State Affairs office. The final job level and annual salary will be determined based on the education, qualification, knowledge, skills, ability, and experience of the final candidate(s), and calibrated against relevant market data and internal team equity. Benefits listed in this posting may vary depending on the nature of your employment with State Affairs.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future company sponsorship.

State Affairs is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions on the basis of merit and business needs. State Affairs does not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic in accordance with federal, state, and local law.

State Affairs is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as they go through our job application and interview process. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at jobs@stateaffairs.com

By submitting your application, you affirm the content contained therein is true and accurate in all respects. Please note that prior to employment, State Affairs will obtain background checks for employment purposes that may include, where permitted by law, the following: identify verification, prior employment verification, personal and professional references, educational verification, and criminal history. For certain roles, further background checks covering additional information and activities may be initiated.

"By clicking "Submit Application" you are consenting to the use and retention of the information you have provided as set forth in the State Affairs Privacy Policy .