Internship, Industrial Engineer, Supply Chain (Winter/Spring 2026)

What to Expect

Consider before submitting an application: 

This position is expected to start around January 2026 and continue through the Spring term (ending approximately May 2026) or continuing into Summer 2026 if available and there is an opportunity to do so. We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks, full-time and on-site, for most internships. Our internship program is for students who are actively enrolled in an academic program. Recent graduates seeking employment after graduation and not returning to school should apply for full-time positions, not internships.

International Students: If your work authorization is through CPT, please consult your school on your ability to work 40 hours per week before applying. You must be able to work 40 hours per week on-site. Many students will be limited to part-time during the academic year.

Multiple Locations Possible: Fremont, CA; Lathrop, CA; Palo Alto, CA; Austin, TX 

What You’ll Do

Your application for the Industrial Engineering Internship will be considered across all opportunities for the teams listed below: 
 

Supplier Quality

• As an intern on the Supplier Quality team, you will be responsible for critical component development, quality management, continuous improvement, and qualification activities at suppliers.  The job requires effective communication at all levels both with internal and external teams, conducting failure analysis, leading statistical process control activities for critical components, limited travel to in-region suppliers, and on-the-spot critical decision making.   You will drive improvements utilizing Lean methodologies, Statistical Process Control, supplier scorecards, ensuring supplier compliance, whilst driving systematic problem solving and process improvement plans to deliver value, and set priorities for suppliers. You will develop positive relationships and work closely with the Supply Chain Team to manage, implement and track supplier/engineering, design changes, capacity studies, New Product Introductions, and transfers.

Supplier Industrialization 

• As an intern on the Supplier Industrialization team, you will be responsible for critical component development and qualification activities at suppliers. The job involves communicating well with internal and external teams, traveling to suppliers in different regions, and on-the-spot critical decision making. You will evaluate the design for manufacturing risks and identify the feasibility of Manufacturing processes such as Dispensing, Pick and Place, Screwing, Laser welding, and other critical manufacturing processes. You will lead internal program reviews for major NPI (New Product Introduction) projects (Gantt chart, milestone tracking, and escalation meetings) such as: Engineering development phases tracking, DFM (Design for Manufacturability) tracking, Product Yield monitoring, and Daily program issue reporting. You will lead the data collection activity, sometimes hands-on in the field, to develop a data collection plan and DOE (Design of Experiments) plan to identify relationships between Input and output factors, to root cause of potential performance drift of a product.  

Industrial Engineering

• As an intern with our Industrial Engineering team, you will either work on projects involving suppliers or process improvement for manufacturing or material flow. The job involves communicating well with internal and external teams and on-the-spot critical decision making. You will plan, direct and conduct industrialization related activities within the supply chain team. You will develop, manage, audit and correct supplier planning and execution of component manufacturing, assembly, and quality processes. You will collaborate with Tesla Design, Quality, and Manufacturing to determine the ideal performance specification and supplier metrics and validate supplier corrective actions involving design and/or process changes to ensure they are robust, sustainable, and implemented across potential manufacturing lines. You will lead supplier improvements in scalability, cost, and quality and validate suppliers to ensure their ability to meet part performance, delivery and reliability expectations.  

What You’ll Bring

• Currently pursuing a degree in Industrial, Mechanical, Electrical, Manufacturing Engineering or a related field  
• Experience with GD&T, AutoCAD, Solid Works, CATIA and MiniTab  
• Experience operating basic tools and equipment in a manufacturing environment  
• Exposure to lean manufacturing principles and concepts 
• Previous experience in production control, project management, root case analysis, material flow, manufacturing, process engineering, internal consulting, systems engineering, and/or warehousing 
• Knowledge PPAP/APQP processes  
• Self-starter, seeks opportunities to improve processes, part quality, and overall efficiency  
• Software skills: MySQL, Tableau, Excel, flowcharting software 
• Bonus: R, Python