Instead is where tax work gets done. Our AI agent orchestrates the entirety of how work gets done in tax, from preparation and compliance to filing and advisory. It's a fundamentally new way of doing tax work, and it's why top 500 firms, Big Four teams, and enterprise corporate tax departments are choosing Instead.
What makes us unique: we hold full government approvals with the IRS, 48 states, and all cities to e-file 1040, 1041, 1120, 1120S, and 1065, with 706, 709, 990, 5500, 2290, and PPT coming for tax year 2026. Instead is a full replacement for CCH Axcess, GoSystem, UltraTax, OneSource, CorpTax, Lacerte, ProConnect, Drake, and more. No other tax startup will be able to offer these capabilities for years as we are two to three years ahead of everyone else in government approvals. This lets us build product experiences that are simply unmatched in the market.
Instead is backed by Conviction, IRIS (the largest tax software provider in the UK), Skylark, Aprio, and many of our partners and customers. Our team includes leaders from Intuit, Gusto, Zenefits, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, PwC, BDO, RSM, and KPMG.
The RoleWe're looking for Software Engineering Interns to join our San Francisco team and build real features on our AI-powered tax platform. This is not a coffee-fetching internship. You'll ship production code that hundreds of accounting firms use, work alongside senior engineers, and get hands-on experience building with AI tools from day one.
Our stack: Vue, Nuxt, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS on the frontend. Go, Docker on AWS ECS/Fargate, and PostgreSQL on AWS RDS on the backend. For AI, we use Cursor, Claude Code, Helicone, Gemini, and OpenAI, and we're constantly evaluating new tools.
What You'll Do- Ship product features end to end on our live customer platform alongside senior engineers
- Build and test AI-powered components including inference pipelines and prompt engineering
- Fix bugs and make product improvements based on real customer feedback
- Create internal tools that make the engineering team more productive
- Learn our full stack and contribute across frontend, backend, and AI layers
- Participate in code reviews, architecture discussions, and product planning
- Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
- Strong programming fundamentals. You can write clean code, debug efficiently, and think about edge cases
- Familiarity with web development (frontend or backend). Experience with any modern framework counts
- Curiosity about AI and willingness to learn. Experience with AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) is a plus
- High attention to detail and a bias for shipping
- Ability to work on-site in San Francisco
- You've built and shipped side projects or open-source contributions that demonstrate your ability to go from idea to working product
- You already use AI tools in your coding workflow and understand how they change the way software gets built
- You learn fast and don't wait to be told what to do. When you see something broken, you fix it
- You care about the end user, not just the code. You want to understand why something matters before you build it
- You're excited about working at a startup where your work ships to real customers on day one
San Francisco (on-site)
Instead is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate candidates based on capability, judgment, ownership, and fit for the role's responsibilities. We welcome candidates who can help us build a category-defining company in tax technology.
Skills Required
- Currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field
- Familiarity with web development (JavaScript/TypeScript, HTML, CSS)
- Exposure to backend development (Go, Python, or similar)
- Strong problem-solving skills
- Ability to work onsite in San Francisco
What We Do
Instead is revolutionizing the tax industry with our AI-powered software, designed to simplify and optimize tax strategies, calculations, and filings for businesses and accountants. Our platform leverages artificial intelligence to streamline the entire tax process, making it more efficient and cost-effective for companies of all sizes. Our current focus areas include: Tax Strategy Optimization: We offer AI-powered analysis to identify potential tax savings opportunities across U.S. tax strategies. Our system automatically applies relevant strategies based on each user's unique financial situation, maximizing tax benefits. Tax Calculations (Coming Soon): Our platform will provide precise tax calculations based on taxpayer scenarios, covering 63 U.S. income tax jurisdictions. This feature aims to reduce the time required for tax return preparation from 8-24 hours to less than 10 minutes. Tax Filing (Coming Soon): We're developing a streamlined, AI-driven tax filing process that will simplify this complex task for businesses and tax professionals alike. Our vision extends beyond the U.S. market, with plans to expand our services to cover tax strategies and calculations in most countries worldwide. At Instead, we believe in making sophisticated tax management accessible and affordable. Our pricing structure starts at just $16 per month for businesses, with options tailored for sole proprietors, various business entities, and specialized needs. For accounting firms, Instead Pro offers a powerful tool to expand services and deliver greater value to clients. Our AI-driven approach enables tax professionals to focus on complex issues and client relationships while automating routine tasks. Join us in revolutionizing the tax industry. Whether you're a growing startup, an established enterprise, or a tax professional, Instead is designed to maximize your tax efficiency and fuel your financial growth. Experience the future of tax management with Instead.
