Business and Operations Intern

About Valency

Valency Systems is a small, dynamic team of engineers, scientists, and researchers building the global hub for the agentic research era.

We're based in Berkeley, California, and we're building something that matters. If you care about open science, advancing research at the speed of thought, and using AI to accelerate discovery, we'd love to talk.

We're based in the Bay Area. As an intern, you'll be fully in-office 5 days a week over the summer — a great way to immerse yourself in the team and get the most out of your experience.

The Position:

We're hiring an intern to work on interesting real-world product, marketing, business, strategic, legal, IP and policy challenges.

What you'll do:

Product/Research Ops: Work with the PM/Director on research workflows, user discovery, and roadmap prioritization

Marketing & Communications: Build our brand narrative, create content strategy, manage social channels, and tell the story of open science infrastructure to researchers and the tech community

Business Development & Strategy (MBA): Market analysis, partnership development, go-to-market planning, and help shape our commercialization strategy for research institutions and enterprises

Legal & Policy: Support open source licensing, IP, data privacy compliance, AI governance frameworks, and research ethics — especially as they relate to agentic AI systems and agentic research

Finance & Operations: Financial modeling, fundraising support, budget planning, and operational scaling as we grow from a small team to a full organization

What every intern gets:

You'll work alongside founders and senior team members — not in a silo. Ship real work that matters. Learn building a dynamic company to support open science and agentic research. Experience startup culture with weekly learning sessions and cross-team exposure. You'll interact with interesting academics and researchers from across many disciplines. If you're exceptional, we'll talk about full-time conversion.

You might be a fit if:

You want to be at the ground floor of an AI startup with a scientific mission. You're a strong communicator and self-starter who thrives in ambiguity. You're curious about how research actually works and excited about making it better. You're comfortable using AI tools in your own workflow.

Preferred: Experience in or exposure to academia, research institutions, science policy, deeptech, or open source ecosystems.

Details:

Duration: 10-12 weeks (Summer 2026) - flexible.

Location: Berkeley (on site, in office)

Compensation: Competitive hourly rate, commensurate with experience and track

Work Authorization: Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States.