Software Engineer Summer Intern

About Bending Spoons

At Bending Spoons, we’re striving to build one of the all-time great companies. Our objective is to serve a vast number of customers, foster the full potential of our team members, and operate with unparalleled effectiveness and efficiency. We aim to create extraordinary value for shareholders while adhering to high ethical standards.

Our strategy involves acquiring digital businesses with untapped potential and leveraging our comprehensive platform—encompassing expertise, technologies, data, brand, talent, and company culture—to maximize their success. The proceeds are then reinvested to strengthen our platform and acquire new ventures, combining an investor’s focus on capital allocation with the hands-on approach of an operator.

For talented, driven, and collaborative individuals, working at Bending Spoons offers an exceptional opportunity to learn, make significant impact, and accelerate their career growth. This is our commitment to such candidates.

About the Software Engineer Summer Intern Program

This internship is an exclusive opportunity for top UK students to immerse themselves in a dynamic, innovative environment. Running from June to September 2026, participants will have the chance to make a real impact, gaining invaluable hands-on experience and professional growth.

Your Responsibilities as a Software Engineer Summer Intern

• Master your toolkit: By working across diverse tech stacks in a full-stack, end-to-end scope, you’ll refine your ability to choose the right tools for every challenge. From monolithic to microservices architectures, gRPC to REST APIs, Kubernetes to Docker, Python to Rust—you’ll demonstrate that true expertise lies in understanding technology's purpose to unleash its full potential.
• Build stuff that matters: Regardless of your seniority, you’ll enjoy significant autonomy and take full ownership of your work, from ideation to execution. You’ll have the unique opportunity to build software from the ground up and witness firsthand how your code evolves into a product used at scale.
• Simplify relentlessly: As a Bending Spoons engineer, your mission is to transform complexity into simplicity. Whether optimizing CI/CD pipelines, writing maintainable code, or crafting minimalist architectures, your drive to simplify will power scalable, future-proof solutions.

What We Look For

• Reasoning ability: Given the necessary knowledge, you can solve complex problems. You think from first principles, structure your ideas sharply, resist biases, and identify critical details.
• Drive: You are extremely ambitious, with initiative, effort, and tenacity matching your ambition. You feel deeply responsible for your work and consistently hold yourself to a high and rising bar.
• Team spirit: You give generously, support the best ideas, are always willing to help your team, and demonstrate reliability, honesty, and transparency.

What We Offer

• Incredibly talented, entrepreneurial teams: You’ll work in small, results-oriented, autonomous teams alongside some of the brightest people in your field.
• An exceptional opportunity for growth: We hire individuals of outstanding potential and prioritize placing them in ideal positions to thrive. Spooners in their 20s often lead products worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and you could soon play an essential role in major projects too.
• Competitive pay and access to equity in the company: For individuals at the start of their career, we typically offer an annual salary of £85,797 in London. Compensation varies by location and expected impact, growing rapidly with experience. If offered a permanent contract, you may receive pay in company equity at a discounted price.

Commitment & Contract

This is a full-time internship opportunity.

Location

This position is based in London (UK) or remote in selected countries. While not mandatory, we recommend spending your first few months working from our Milan office to quickly absorb our company culture and build trust with your new teammates, with generous travel and accommodation assistance provided.

The Selection Process

Our screening process prioritizes verifiable signals of excellence. If you like the role and believe you could excel, don’t self-reject. Successful candidates will complete one or more challenging, multi-hour tests. We set a high bar, and an offer is extended only when we are confident in finding the right candidate.

We consider all applicants and provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

Before You Apply

If you’ve applied before and didn't receive an offer, we recommend waiting at least one year before reapplying.

Bending Spoons is a demanding environment. Our high standards drive extraordinary learning and career growth but require significant commitment. We’re excited to meet you if this role speaks to you!

Key skills/competency

• Software Development
• Full-Stack Engineering
• System Architecture
• Problem Solving
• Kubernetes & Docker
• Python & Rust
• API Design (gRPC, REST)
• CI/CD Optimization
• Scalable Solutions
• Team Collaboration