Decagon Internship 2027–2028: Programs, Deadlines & How to Apply

Last updated: July 2026

Decagon went from founding to a $4.5 billion valuation in under two and a half years, landed on the Forbes AI 50 list, and counts Notion, Duolingo, Eventbrite, Hertz, and Riot Games among its 100-plus enterprise clients. Both founders are second-time founders who previously sold companies to Niantic and Scale AI. The company's single confirmed intern track, Agent Software Engineer, pays $2,400 per week with a $10,000 housing stipend and puts interns on production AI-agent systems from day one at its San Francisco headquarters.

Quick Facts

One confirmed intern track (Agent Software Engineer) at a hypergrowth AI startup. $2,400 per week with a $10,000 housing stipend, 5 days a week in San Francisco, and at least one prior SWE internship required. The speed of this company's growth suggests the intern program will expand, but right now the single track is the door.

Externships are short, remote projects where you finish real work for a real company. The Wayfair AI Agent Engineering Externship and Beats by Dre Data Analytics Externship build the AI-agent engineering and data-analysis evidence a Decagon application specifically asks for. Explore all Externships.

What Is a Decagon Internship?

A Decagon internship places you inside one of the fastest-growing AI startups in the country, building the autonomous customer-support agents that companies like Notion, Duolingo, and Riot Games deploy at enterprise scale. The single confirmed track, Agent Software Engineer Intern, is not a shadow-and-learn experience: the listing explicitly states that interns design and build AI agents intended to outperform human agents in complex customer interactions, experiment with the latest text and voice models, and contribute directly to production-ready initiatives. The company operates at startup speed (code ships to production in days, per employee reviews) with a five-day-a-week in-office culture at its San Francisco headquarters. At $2,400 per week plus a $10,000 housing stipend, the compensation is competitive with much larger companies, and the hypergrowth trajectory (4x year-over-year ARR growth, 434 employees) suggests that strong interns have a clear path to full-time roles at meaningful equity.

When Do Decagon Internship Applications Open for 2027–2028?

Decagon launched its first formal internship program for Summer 2026, so the historical dataset is thin. The Summer 2026 Agent Software Engineer Intern listing appeared well in advance (at least 6 months before the May start) and remained open for several months, consistent with rolling admissions. Glassdoor reports a 13-day average hiring process, which is fast by industry standards. For Summer 2027, expect applications to open around October to November 2026, with interviews running on a rolling basis through early 2027. Because this is a young program at a hypergrowth company, timelines may shift; the safest move is to monitor the Ashby board starting in September 2026.

Why You Must Apply the Week Applications Open

Decagon is a Series D startup with roughly 434 employees and a single confirmed intern track, which means the number of available seats is small. The Summer 2026 listing appeared months before the start date and remained open on a rolling basis, but at this company size and growth rate, openings close as soon as the right candidates are identified. Reddit threads place Decagon alongside Together AI and Modal as one of the harder AI startups to land, and community members note that getting an interview at Decagon can be more difficult than at FAANG companies. The advantage: 76% of applicants go through the online portal and only 10% through referral, meaning a warm introduction from a current employee is a significant differentiator at a company this size. Apply early, apply with a referral, and come with demonstrable AI-agent work.

Which Decagon Internship Programs Should You Target?

Decagon launched its formal internship program in 2026 with a single track. As a young company in hypergrowth (118 total open roles across engineering, product, and operations), the program may expand in future cycles. For now, there is one confirmed path in:

The honest picture: Decagon has one confirmed intern track today. But the company quadrupled ARR in the past year and is expanding its SF headquarters to 70,000 square feet, so the intern program is likely to grow with it. Monitor the job board for new listings as headcount expands.

What Are the Eligibility Requirements?

From the confirmed Summer 2026 Agent Software Engineer Intern listing, the requirements are specific and the bar is higher than most startup internships:

• Education: currently pursuing or recently completed a Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related technical field.

• Graduation: must be graduating by summer 2027, positioning this as a final internship before full-time employment.

• Prior experience: at least one previous software engineering internship is required. This is a hard requirement, not a preference.

• Work mode: in-office 5 days per week at Decagon's San Francisco headquarters (100 First Street, Financial District). No remote option for interns.

• Visa: full-time H-1B sponsorship confirmed (11 LCAs in FY2026). Intern visa eligibility (CPT/OPT) is not explicitly stated but is likely given the University department classification. Confirm with the recruiting team.

Why Does Decagon Require a Prior Internship?

Both of Decagon's founders previously built and sold startups (to Niantic and Scale AI), and the company culture emphasizes shipping production code fast. The prior-internship requirement filters for candidates who already understand production engineering norms, code review, and collaborative workflows, reducing the onboarding ramp. If you do not yet have an internship on your resume, a completed Externship or a substantial open-source contribution that demonstrates production-grade work can help bridge the gap, though the listing states the requirement clearly.

What Skills Does Decagon Look For, and How Do You Build Them?

Decagon's single intern listing and related interview reports paint a consistent picture: the company evaluates for AI-agent engineering fluency above all else. TypeScript and Python are the core languages, but the preferred skills read like an agentic-AI curriculum: multi-modal models, LLM APIs, ReAct loops, retrieval-augmented generation, and agent failure modes including prompt injection and tool misuse. Interview rounds test API design, concurrency, LLM tool-call schema parsing, streaming response handling, and system design for autonomous agent architectures. This is not a generalist SWE internship with an AI label; it is a deep-stack agent-engineering role at a company whose entire product is AI agents.

How Is Demand for AI Agent Engineering Interns Moving Right Now?

Build These Skills Before You Apply

And every skill in that chart maps to a remote Externship where you finish a real project before a posting opens.

The Wayfair project is directly relevant: it is an AI-agent engineering build that produces the exact kind of production evidence Decagon's on-site interviews probe for, and the Beats project adds the data-analysis story the behavioral round wants.

What Is the Decagon Application and Interview Process Like?

Decagon's interview loop is compact and moves fast, averaging 13 days from application to offer according to Glassdoor:

1. Apply on Decagon's Ashby board. Filter for University department roles. Also available on a16z Jobs. About 76% of applicants apply online; securing a referral (only 10% of applicants) gives a meaningful edge at a company this size.

2. Recruiter screen (30 minutes). A phone or video call covering your background, interest in Decagon, and basic logistics. Straightforward and conversational.

3. Technical phone screen (45 to 60 minutes). A coding challenge in TypeScript or Python focused on practical engineering problems rather than textbook algorithms. Expect LLM-adjacent scenarios.

4. Full-day on-site at SF headquarters. Four rounds: (1) coding pair (60 min) with practical TypeScript/Python and LLM-tooling problems, (2) system design (60 min) covering AI-agent architectures, RAG pipelines, and evaluation frameworks, (3) project deep dive (60 min) probing genuine ownership and trade-off reasoning from your past work, and (4) behavioral round (45 to 60 min) assessing culture fit and your ability to use AI tools effectively.

Two things stand out about Decagon's process. First, it is fast: 13 days average means you can go from application to offer in under three weeks. Second, it is heavily weighted toward AI-agent engineering specifics. The on-site system design round asks you to architect autonomous ticket resolution, knowledge retrieval with RAG, and evaluation frameworks, not generic distributed-systems questions. Come prepared with concrete stories about building and debugging AI systems, because the project deep dive is explicitly an ownership probe, and surface-level answers will not survive 60 minutes of follow-up questions.

What Students on Reddit Say

Community threads give a ground-level read on what applying to Decagon looks like, all paraphrased.

How Do You Stand Out at an AI Startup Harder to Enter Than FAANG?

Three moves, all before a posting goes live. First, get a referral: only 10% of Decagon applicants come through referrals versus 76% through the online portal, and at a 434-person company, a warm introduction lands your resume on a desk instead of in a queue. Second, build an AI-agent project you can walk through for 60 minutes straight: the on-site includes a project deep dive that is explicitly an ownership probe, and interviewers will drill into trade-offs, failure modes, and iteration decisions until they find the boundary of what you actually did versus what the team did. A completed Externship or personal project involving LLM orchestration, tool-calling, and RAG gives you the concrete artifact this round requires. Third, practice the AI-specific system design round: Decagon asks you to architect autonomous ticket resolution, retrieval pipelines, and evaluation frameworks, not generic load-balancer problems. If you can design an agent system that handles prompt injection gracefully and evaluates its own output quality, you are preparing for the right test.

What Other Companies Should You Consider?

Decagon sits at the intersection of AI infrastructure and enterprise SaaS. If you are building an AI-startup internship list, these companies compete for similar talent:

Our tech internships summer 2027 guide maps the whole landscape, timeline by timeline.

FAQ

Does Decagon have an internship program?

Yes. Decagon ran an Agent Software Engineer Intern program for Summer 2026 under its University department. Based on that precedent and the company's hypergrowth trajectory, expect a similar posting for Summer 2027 starting fall 2026.

How much do Decagon interns get paid?

$2,400 per week (approximately $60 per hour) plus a $10,000 housing stipend for the internship period. Interns also receive free daily meals, medical/dental/vision coverage, and commuter benefits.

When should I apply for a Decagon Summer 2027 internship?

Based on the Summer 2026 cycle, applications likely open October to November 2026. The internship runs approximately May through September (4 to 5 months, flexible). Monitor the Ashby board starting September 2026.

Is the Decagon internship remote?

No. Interns must work in-office 5 days per week at Decagon's San Francisco headquarters in the Financial District. The $10,000 housing stipend helps offset relocation costs.

Do I need prior internship experience?

Yes. The Summer 2026 listing requires at least one previous software engineering internship. This is a hard requirement, not a preference. Decagon's fast-shipping culture expects interns who already understand production engineering norms.

What is the Decagon interview process like?

A recruiter screen, a 45- to 60-minute technical phone screen in TypeScript or Python, then a full-day on-site with coding pair, system design, project deep dive, and behavioral rounds. The entire process averages 13 days. Expect AI-agent-specific system design questions.

How hard is it to get a Decagon internship?

Community feedback places Decagon alongside Together AI and Modal as harder to get into than FAANG for AI internships. The single intern track, small cohort size, prior-internship requirement, and AI-specific technical bar all contribute to high selectivity.

Does Decagon sponsor visas for interns?

Full-time H-1B sponsorship is confirmed with 11 labor condition applications filed in FY2026. Intern CPT and OPT eligibility is not explicitly stated but is likely given the University department classification. Confirm directly with the recruiting team.

Decagon's bar is high and its cohort is small, but the path is clear: build AI-agent work you can walk through for 60 minutes, then apply early with a referral. A remote Externship gives you that finished project before the posting goes live.