Nurturing the Next Generation of Tech Innovators at Coupang
Every day, Coupang’s technology teams build and improve systems that operate at scale, from search and AI to the infrastructure behind them. This summer, interns in Seattle and Mountain View became part of that work, applying their academic knowledge while learning how technology moves from ideas and experimentation into practice.
Along the way, they learned from experienced professionals, built connections across the Coupang community, and gained new perspectives on where their careers could take them.
Learning Beyond the Classroom
For many interns, the summer offered a chance to see how ideas studied or researched in an academic setting take shape in a real technology environment.
Working with a team exploring new approaches to search, Jinming followed ideas from research and experimentation through A/B testing, seeing firsthand how new approaches are evaluated in a production environment. What had once seemed like two separate ideas, pursuing research and creating practical impact, began to come together.
“To do research and at the same time make production impact used to be very disconnected and foggy in my mind. This internship experience showed me how my team and my mentors are doing it.” - Jinming
That connection took different forms across the internship. Through her work on Coupang’s search infrastructure, Nora gained a broader view of how different parts of a large-scale search system work together. Samruddhi broadened her perspective through a reliability project, seeing how technology is managed and maintained beyond development. Shivya, meanwhile, learned through working with stakeholders that solving a problem meant not only applying technical skills, but also understanding what people needed and communicating her work in a way that could support their decisions.
Growing Through Mentorship
As interns worked through unfamiliar problems, experienced teammates provided guidance while giving them room to develop their own approaches.
For Nora, that environment changed the way she thought about asking for help. Coming into the internship, asking questions had felt intimidating, but she found that her team fostered an environment where curiosity was welcomed.
Learning also happened through everyday interactions. Shivya gained new perspectives by talking with colleagues across different teams, while Max found that his mentors gave him room to explore his AI code review project rather than prescribing every step. Max summed up the experience in one word: “Discovery.”
Matthew tackled an open-ended search project that required him to research, experiment, and propose his own solutions, while Yash learned to communicate the reasoning behind his code clearly to reviewers who did not always share the same context.
Building Connections Beyond the Project
While project work formed the core of the internship, the experience was also shaped by the relationships interns built throughout the summer, both within their teams and across the broader Coupang community.
Those connections grew through everyday interactions, lunches, informal gatherings, and activities that brought interns together beyond their immediate teams. The Intern Scavenger Hunt was one of those moments, with interns exploring the office, meeting new colleagues, learning more about Coupang, and solving challenges together before connecting with recruiters and leaders over a BBQ lunch.
For Shubhra, the relationships she built became just as meaningful as the hands-on AI experience she gained through her project.
“I came in expecting to gain technical skills, but I am leaving with a deeply wholesome experience centered around mentorship, teamwork, and genuine kindness.” - Shubhra
Building the Future Together
Putting their knowledge into practice also brought greater clarity about where interns wanted to go next. Jinming saw more clearly how research and production impact could come together, Nora deepened her interest in large-scale distributed systems, and Shivya left motivated to continue learning through hands-on projects.
As the summer comes to a close, interns take with them more than experience on a particular project. They leave with new perspectives, meaningful relationships, and greater confidence in how they want to contribute to the future of technology.
Employee stories |
Coupang’s Bar Raiser program entrusts select employees outside the hiring team with the responsibility of ensuring fairness and objectivity in interviews. More than interviewers, Bar Raisers uphold our hiring standards, strengthen our culture, and help every new hire raise the talent bar.
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 |
Price Planning at Coupang Eats Services analyzes delivery demand and supply by region to design optimal pricing. We met Jino and Zia, who began their careers as new hires in this strategy-focused role, and their manager Woody, who helped turn their potential into performance.