Undergraduate Summer Intern

Undergraduate Summer Intern
Realize 2050 · Summer 2026 · 10 weeks · Fully Remote (option for contract-to-hire)

The Role

We're looking for an Undergraduate Summer Intern to be the research and analytical engine across several live engagements. You'll run the research, build the scans, construct model components, and keep the market intelligence current, the upstream work that makes a Principal's recommendation defensible.

Realize 2050 is an energy solutions consultancy and venture studio working with utilities, large companies, and well-funded startups across energy and transportation. This isn't shadowing. You'll be assigned real deliverables with real deadlines, working alongside Analysts and Engagement Managers who'll give you direct feedback and expect you to grow fast. If you want a summer where you'll learn how strategy and commercialization work actually get done, this is the role.

What You'll Do

Research & Market Intelligence

• Run the policy, regulatory, and technology briefs that shape live engagement decisions

• Build market sizing and competitive scans against named alternatives

• Hunt for emerging technologies, IP, and partnership leads worth our team's attention

• Produce sharp, well-cited briefs the team can act on

Modeling & Analytical Support

• Build and QA model components under an EM's direction

• Translate analysis into clean, exec-ready charts, one-pagers, and slide content

• Support pilot-site and partner-shortlist research with first-pass scoring

Internal IP & Firm Building

• Kelp build the templates, models, and tooling that power our Innovation Flywheel

• Contribute to a public piece — a market scan, a data viz, a short post — that puts a Realize 2050 view into the world

You Might Be a Fit If You Have

• Currently enrolled in an undergraduate program, rising junior or senior preferred

• Strong analytical foundation — economics, engineering, public policy, environmental science, finance, or similar

• Comfortable in Excel; bonus if you can move fluidly between Excel, vibe coding, and a slide deck

• Clear, organized writing — you can produce a research brief that doesn't need a heavy edit, with sources cited and assumptions made explicit

• AI literacy: you've integrated modern AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, agentic workflows) into your research and analytical work, and you understand both where they accelerate you and where they fail

• Demonstrated interest in energy and transportation systems: prior coursework, a relevant club or research project, an internship, a side project, something concrete

• Self-directed: when you hit something you don't know, you find the answer before you ask

Bonus Points For

• Prior internship at a utility, energy or transportation company, climate tech startup, consulting firm, or policy organization

• A point of view on what's broken in energy or transportation today, and a hypothesis about how to fix it

What We Offer

• Real client-engagement exposure

• Weekly mentorship from and structured feedback

• A path to return as a full-time Analyst after graduation for interns who deliver

• Competitive hourly compensation

• Fully remote — work from anywhere in the US