Working at Coupang means solving problems at a scale where decisions, ideas, and innovations can impact millions of customers. This summer, interns in Seattle and Mountain View had the opportunity to experience that scale firsthand through real work across AI, search, infrastructure, and product.
For many, that meant taking on more responsibility than they had expected, with opportunities to contribute ideas, explore different approaches, and see how their work could make a meaningful difference.
More Than They Expected
Likhith arrived expecting that his role might focus largely on supporting work happening behind the scenes. Instead, he worked across teams on Generative AI governance and built an AI spend dashboard designed to help teams track usage and respond to unexpected cost increases.
“I expected to work primarily on background support tasks, but I was surprised by the immediate level of trust and visibility granted to interns.” - Likhith
That sense of ownership took a different form for Jahanvi. While working on Coupang’s AI infrastructure, she explored different approaches, weighed their tradeoffs, and made recommendations that helped shape the direction of her project. While she had expected to work on a small part of a larger project, she was instead trusted to explore different approaches, make recommendations, and help shape the direction of her work.
For both, what stood out was not simply the complexity of the work, but the trust they were given to contribute their own thinking.
Saaya’s work on AI alignment and model evaluation gave her a similar opportunity to take ownership of a foundational technical problem. She explored how datasets used throughout the AI model lifecycle could be evaluated against real production data. Rather than simply applying existing methods, she formed her own hypotheses, tested different approaches through experimentation, and used the results as evidence to discuss and determine the project’s technical direction with experienced engineers.
Through the process, Saaya learned that building reliable AI systems is not just about producing a technical result. It also means being able to answer, “Why should we choose this approach?” with evidence that can support a technical decision.
Trusted to Find Their Own Way
That trust did not mean interns were left to figure everything out alone. They had room to explore while learning from experienced teammates who could offer context, challenge their thinking, and help them move forward.
While working on an AI code review project, Max Guo found that his mentors guided him toward useful resources and previous approaches without prescribing exactly what to do. He summed up the experience in one word: “Discovery.”
That balance also mattered when there was no single, obvious answer. As an AI Product Management intern, Pariya worked across Product, Engineering, Legal, Design, and Business teams on securing advertiser consent for AI-generated content. Navigating divergent priorities taught her that progress often starts with making sure everyone is solving the same problem. For Pariya, successful product management was often less about coming up with the right solution immediately and more about ensuring that everyone was aligned on the problem before moving into execution.
Across projects, interns had the space to test their own thinking while knowing they could turn to experienced colleagues for another perspective.
Seeing Their Work Matter
For some interns, the impact of that ownership became visible before the summer was over.
Likhith saw his AI spend dashboard move into active use, helping teams monitor usage and respond to unexpected cost increases. Jinming followed his search research from experimentation into A/B testing, seeing firsthand how new ideas are evaluated in a production environment.
For Shivya, impact took on a different meaning when she realized that what she was building would ultimately be used by others, including people without a technical background.
“Impact isn’t just about building something technically strong. It’s about building something that people can actually understand, use, and benefit from.” - Shivya
From building tools to shaping projects and testing new ideas, the interns had the opportunity to see what their own contributions could make possible. Their summer at Coupang showed that meaningful impact doesn’t depend on how long you’ve been on a team. It starts with the opportunity to contribute, the trust to take ownership, and the support to turn ideas into action.
Employee stories |
From helping launch Coupang Taiwan’s first fulfillment center—and packing its very first Rocket Delivery order—to building the infrastructure that supports its continued growth, Nick has grown alongside the business while taking on increasingly complex challenges.
Employee stories |
Chloe moved from software sales to Coupang Taiwan, where she builds brand partnerships and drives growth in the Pet category. Drawing on her experience as a pet owner, she identifies unmet customer needs while broadening her business perspective through cross-functional collaboration.
Employee stories |
He joined Coupang's Seattle office as a Staff Software Engineer in early 2024, where his initial focus was helping build our next-generation inventory system to support the next stage of Coupang's growth. Click to read his full stoy.