Technical Product Engineer - New Grad Internship

About Safi

Safi started out five years ago as a university-based startup with a mission to improve safety and visibility across the East African dairy supply chain. Its first breakthrough was a micro-pasteurization control unit designed to be the first of its kind. Since then, the company has grown into a frontier technology business with two parallel priorities: building practical micro-solutions for the East African agritech sector, and creating a low-cost, high-volume data platform for African data.

The company combines IoT hardware deployed in rural environments with a modern data engine to serve as a central system for rural data collection.

Role overview

This internship is designed to support the founders on technical work with high impact. The role spans the software application layer from a full-stack perspective, while also giving exposure to embedded software and hardware implementation. Over the six-month internship, you will work across a wide range of technical challenges.

You will report to the CTO and contribute to backend systems used for data collection from IoT devices and the company’s messaging-based primary data collection tool, the web application, firmware and embedded systems for the micro-pasteurization control units, and the PCBAs and hardware for those units.

Work location

The position is mainly remote, but there will be opportunities to work together with the team in person during the internship.

Candidate profile

Safi is offering this opportunity in partnership with IRAP’s Youth Employment Program, so eligibility rules are strict. Applicants must be recent university graduates from a technical program and must be between 15 and 30 years old. Eligible candidates must also be Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or refugees.

The team is looking for someone who can handle frequent context switching, think quickly, take ownership of projects, and stay confident when tasks are unclear or changing. The role suits a person who enjoys complex technical work and brings practical software experience, along with limited but real exposure to firmware and hardware electronics.

Required qualifications

• An undergraduate degree in a technical field such as Mechatronics, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related program
• Solid software development experience across backend, frontend, and infrastructure work
• Practical object-oriented programming experience, ideally in Python
• Exposure to cloud infrastructure, preferably AWS
• Working knowledge of Git, version control practices, pull requests, and collaborative development workflows
• Frontend experience with React or a similar modern JavaScript framework
• Ability to understand, maintain, and extend codebases that have limited documentation
• Comfort producing technical documentation such as READMEs, setup instructions, system notes, and internal process guides
• Ability to independently test, troubleshoot, and deliver software features
• Familiarity with Bluetooth, IoT devices, sensor data, or forwarding data from devices to the cloud

Preferred experience

• Background in event-driven design, APIs, backend services, queues, data pipelines, or messaging-oriented systems
• Experience handling structured and unstructured data, including cleaning, transforming, and validating datasets
• Hands-on exposure to embedded systems, firmware, microcontrollers, or connected hardware products
• Practical hardware experience through internships, coursework, capstone work, robotics teams, lab projects, or personal builds
• Basic understanding of PCBAs, electronics debugging, manufacturing handoff, or hardware product development processes

Compensation

This is a six-month internship contract. The expected annualized pay range is CAD 60,000 to CAD 80,000.

Long-term opportunity

Although the contract is for six months, the company is looking for someone who can grow into a full-time technical team member. The internship is intended as a pathway into a core role rather than a short-term experience.

Application instructions

Candidates should include responses in a cover letter to the following:

• Why you want to join Safi and what about its technical solutions interests you as a new graduate
• What practical experiences you have that combine software and hardware skills, and how you would apply them at Safi

To be considered, applicants must also email their resume and cover letter to outreach@safi.world in addition to completing the application.