"We're solving real-world problems that matter, and we move fast. It's a challenging environment, but it's also one where individuals can build things that reach thousands of machines across industries."
The headlines are hard to miss.
‘The entry-level job market is the worst it’s been in 37 years,’ says Fortune Magazine. ‘Young Graduates Face the Grimmest Job Market in Years,’ says the New York Times. ‘The job market is so tough, young people are struggling just to land internships,’ writes CNN.
But inside a fast-growing office in Atlantic Station, that doesn't seem to apply.
Tractian, an Atlanta-based company building physical AI for manufacturing and asset-heavy industries, is bucking the trend in a significant way. The company is preparing to bring on as many as 30 interns through its 2026 internship program, offering a kind of hands-on experience that has become increasingly rare in a contracting market. It also has a very full career page with positions open across multiple departments.
And for tech talent in Atlanta, that is very good news.
Building Something Real
Tractian's internship program is just one sign of growth for the scaling company.
“It’s never been a better time to be an intern,” CEO Igor Marinelli told Hypepotamus. One reason is because of the new AI tools available, helping interns show off their skills and abilities over a shorter time (and ultimately prove their full-time capabilities). Marinelli said that Tractian provides interns with the GPUs and tokens needed to start working from the beginning.
Tractian’s technology sits at the intersection of manufacturing and AI, helping eliminate costly downtime that plagues factories, production lines, and heavy equipment operators. It has scaled quickly through venture capital and bringing on a strong set of customers.
Marinelli said that the company offers employees and interns alike a place to work across hardware, software, and industrial systems simultaneously.
"Interns bring curiosity and fresh perspective," Marinelli said. "For a company like ours that is constantly building new technology, that energy matters. It also allows us to develop talent early and give students exposure to real industrial problems before they graduate. Many of our strongest hires started that way."
This summer, Tractian will bring on interns across engineering, produce, data, and go-to-market teams. Marinelli said that Tractian has received strong interest from undergraduate and graduate students alike.
Building More "Tractian"
Tractian's ambitions are backed by real momentum.
The company has raised $183.7 million in venture capital to date, with support from VC heavyweights including General Catalyst, Y Combinator, and Sapphire Ventures. Its customers include enterprise giants like Whirlpool, CSX, Verizon, and Kraft Heinz.
The core insight behind the business came to Marinelli early.
"I grew up around people who work with their hands,” he said. "Those jobs keep the real economy running, but the technology supporting them has historically been terrible. When I started visiting factories, it became obvious that the machines producing billions of dollars in output were still being maintained with spreadsheets and reactive maintenance. That gap between the importance of the work and the lack of modern tools is what pulled me in."
The moment he knew the company could scale came when he started seeing the same problems repeat across different industries and geographies.
"Different industries, different geographies, same maintenance issues, same lack of visibility, same downtime costs," Marinelli added. "Once we saw the product solving a repeatable problem across facilities, it became clear this was not a niche product but something that could scale globally."
The Road to Atlanta
Marinelli said that his move to Atlanta was accidental, but helped shape the trajectory of Tractian.
He founded the company while a student at UC Berkeley. But when he went looking for engineering talent in the Bay Area in 2019, he got crickets.
Georgia Tech was different. The school's strong programs in mechanical and electrical engineering (alongside its computer science talent) produced graduates who understood not just software, but the physical, industrial world. The company's first hire came from Georgia Tech. And the university has remained a strong hiring center for the company ever since as it has scaled.
Atlanta also offers a practical geographic advantage. The company's customers are largely concentrated in the central and eastern time zones, and having the core team in Atlanta puts Tractian closer to the industrial heartland it serves.
Today, Tractian's Atlanta office is located in Atlantic Station. This summer, the team will relocate to the Coda Building in Midtown's Tech Square, a space that will house approximately 300 employees.
"We're solving real-world problems that matter, and we move fast," he added. "It's a challenging environment, but it's also one where individuals can build things that reach thousands of machines across industries."
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