Are you an innovative thinker, a relentless problem solver, and a driven learner passionate about reshaping the future of education through AI? Do you thrive in a high-impact, fast-paced startup environment where your technical contributions directly shape the development of a revolutionary platform? If so, SYNAPTA is looking for a QA & Bug-Fixing Engineering Intern to join our team and play an important role in revolutionising the stagnant “one-size-fits-all” higher education system by helping build the next-generation AI-driven EdTech platform. This is a 3-month, part-time unpaid internship (with potential university credit through a Work Integrated Learning unit) and offers the opportunity for potential future paid employment and shareholder consideration based on performance and cultural fit.

📌 About SYNAPTA (www.synapta.com.au) 

SYNAPTA is an AI-powered education platform redefining how students learn and institutions assess knowledge. Our mission is to revolutionise education by leveraging AI, machine learning, and personalised learning models to enhance academic integrity, feedback systems, and adaptive learning. SYNAPTA is structured into three transformative phases: 

🔹 Phase 1: Cypher: A comprehensive AI plagiarism detection system ensuring academic integrity with advanced ML-driven deep learning content analysis detecting high levels of obfuscation (synthetic black-box detection system). 

🔹 Phase 2: Critora: A comprehensive AI-powered marking and personalised feedback system that automates assessments across various formats, from essays to quantitative assessments such as coding assignments. Reducing marking time & providing personalised feedback system.

🔹 Phase 3: Axion: A next-generation AI-driven personalised learning platform that dynamically adapts to each student's learning style through leveraging cognitive science, learning theory and creating customised learning pathways. Increasing information retention efficiency. 

At SYNAPTA, we believe that AI should not replace education, instead it should enhance it.

🚀 Responsibilities:

• Conduct user flow and functionality testing: You’ll simulate real user interactions to ensure all features, buttons, and workflows perform as expected. This includes identifying UI/UX inconsistencies, broken links, and usability issues that could disrupt the student or educator experience on SYNAPTA’s platform.

• Investigate and resolve low-priority bugs: Work closely with the engineering team to reproduce and document issues, write clear bug reports, and implement small, guided fixes. This will help improve product stability while giving you practical experience in debugging and code review workflows.

• Assist with dataset generation and segmentation: Help prepare and organize datasets used in SYNAPTA’s AI modules. This involves collecting, cleaning, and categorizing data, as well as segmenting it into relevant structures for testing AI integrity and marking accuracy systems.

• Build and run automated testing suites: Develop and maintain automated tests (unit, integration, and end-to-end) to continuously verify that code changes meet functionality standards. You’ll learn how to use testing frameworks and tools (Ex: PyTest, Jest, or Playwright) to identify regressions before they reach production.

• Test, document, and fix API issues when applicable: Use tools like Postman or Insomnia to verify API responses, error handling, and endpoint consistency. When minor issues arise, you’ll collaborate with backend developers to identify root causes, patch the bug, and confirm the fix through regression testing.

💡 What We’re Looking For

✔️ Curiosity & Vision: You’re a current student who’s eager to contribute to something bigger than yourself,  someone who can see how technology can reshape education and wants to be part of that transformation.

✔️ Proactive & Execution-Driven: You don’t wait to be told what to do. You take initiative, explore, test, and learn by doing. You thrive on seeing your work make a tangible difference and are excited to contribute to real-world projects in a fast-paced startup environment.

✔️ Creative Problem-Solving: You enjoy untangling complex issues and thinking beyond conventional approaches. Whether debugging an unexpected issue or refining a dataset, you seek efficient, innovative solutions.

✔️ Resilience & Adaptability: You understand startups/SMEs move fast and priorities shift often. You’re comfortable working under ambiguity, learning from feedback, and iterating quickly when challenges arise.

✔️ Continuous Learning Mindset: You’re a lifelong learner, constantly experimenting with new technologies, frameworks, or tools. You stay curious about AI, education, and the impact of technology on how people learn and grow.

🎓 Qualifications:

• Current Bachelor’s or Master’s student in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related field (Work Integrated Learning eligibility preferred as it can potentially go to students unit credits)

• Based in Australia (remote or hybrid)

• Experience with Java, Python, C++, PyTest, HTML, Jest, Playwright, React, Node.js, SQL , PostgreSQL, MangoDB, Firebase, and Cypress for automated testing

• Experience using Postman or Insomnia for API testing and validation

• Basic SQL skills and ability to debug using logs, console, and browser network tabs

• Exposure to GCP, Azure, AWS, Docker, and CI/CD tools (Ex: GitHub Actions)

• Familiarity with Git/GitHub and standard branching workflows

• Comfortable writing bug reports and test documentation (Jira, Linear, or Asana)

• Interest in ML, LLMs, prompt-robustness testing, or academic-integrity tooling

• Exposure to cloud and orchestration tools like AWS, Supabase, Fargate, or Airflow

• Good communication skills and attention to detail

• Willingness to learn quickly, take feedback, and work collaboratively in a startup environment

This internship may lead to a contract or long-term employment opportunity at SYNAPTA based on performance and cultural fit. Successful interns may be offered paid, equity, or bonus-based future employment, with flexible working arrangements that align with ongoing academic schedules, whether full-time or part-time.

📩 How to Apply:

To apply, please submit your CV/Resume, GitHub account (or links to relevant projects worked on) along with a 1-page cover letter detailing 2 points: 

-  Why you are you willing to contribute towards AI and revolutionising education?

- What’s intrinsically motivating you to apply for this position?

Send your application to [email protected] & apply through Linkedin.

Successful applicants will be invited to complete a short, open-ended technical architecture task related to education and multimodal AI development. There’s no strict limit on the depth of work, the more effort and creativity you put in, the better we can assess your motivation, capacity, and innovative thinking, which may strengthen your opportunity to join the project. (NOTE: this is not required component of the internship just a segmentation metric).

Following this, selected candidates will be invited to a brief cultural-fit interview to meet the SYNAPTA team and explore potential alignment and collaboration.