Industrial Program Engineer Intern- Summer 2027

Position Summary

The Shape Corp student engineering program provides students with hands-on experience in a dynamic automotive manufacturing and product-launch environment. The Industrial Program Engineering Intern will work alongside Industrial Program Engineers, plant leadership, and cross-functional program teams to support industrial development activities required for successful product launches. This opportunity is designed to help an entry-level engineering student gain practical exposure to production readiness, equipment and tooling, plant layouts, material flow, launch planning, engineering changes, and manufacturing performance.

Essential Job Functions

• Assist Industrial Program Engineers with assigned industrial-development work packages and plant launch activities throughout the program lifecycle.
• Support coordination between business-unit program teams, plant operations, engineering, quality, launch, logistics, tooling, equipment suppliers, and other project stakeholders.
• Help maintain project plans, timing, action lists, deliverables, task dependencies, risks, and launch-readiness status.
• Collect, organize, analyze, and report data related to production capacity, capital expenditures, direct labor, material yield, scrap, cycle time, layouts, material flow, lead time, logistics cost, quality, and delivery.
• Assist with development and review of the industrial footprint, plant layouts, equipment selection, tooling plans, manufacturing concepts, and internal or external material and information flows.
• Participate in tooling kickoffs, equipment-design reviews, SES equipment-design workshops, industrial trials, pilot builds, and production-readiness activities.
• Support implementation of Shape Excellence System principles, ergonomic requirements, safety expectations, and Shape technical standards in new or modified production systems.
• Assist with manufacturing readiness reviews by helping identify issues, document actions, assign follow-up items, and track closure with responsible team members.
• Support production trials and launch events, including Run at Rate, Mass Production Trials, Extended Mass Production Trials, and Start of Production readiness activities.
• Help maintain launch documentation, Launch Book materials, PDCA actions, lessons learned, KPI trackers, and cross-functional review materials.
• Participate in FMEA reviews and help track key control characteristics, process capability, equipment capability, and manufacturing-risk reduction activities.
• Assist with assessment and implementation of engineering changes to help confirm that proposed product or process modifications do not negatively affect manufacturing.
• Support investigation of launch and industrial risks involving capacity, quality, safety, timing, capital, equipment, tooling, material flow, or production performance.
• Prepare reports, presentations, visual summaries, meeting materials, and status updates communicating launch progress, issues, risks, actions, and recommendations.
• Follow applicable safety, quality, customer, confidentiality, project-management, and engineering standards while performing assigned work.
• Perform additional duties as assigned by the supervisor, not otherwise specified in this position description

Education & Experience

• Currently pursuing a bachelor's degree from an accredited program in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Technology, Supply Chain Engineering, Operations Management, Business Administration with a technical focus, or a closely related field.
• 3.0 GPA or higher on a 4.0 scale.
• Coursework or project experience involving manufacturing systems, project management, operations, plant layout, material flow, product launch, engineering design, finance, or data analysis.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook.
• Able to spend time in a manufacturing environment observing processes, supporting trials, and working with plant teams.
• Able to organize multiple assignments, maintain action items, understand task dependencies, and meet timelines with appropriate guidance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to contribute effectively within a cross-functional team.
• Strong analytical, organizational, project-coordination, and problem-solving skills with attention to detail.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exposure to automotive product-launch processes, manufacturing readiness, industrialization, equipment or tooling projects, or engineering-change management.
• Familiarity with Lean Manufacturing and Shape Excellence System concepts such as Kaizen, gemba, material and information flow analysis, PDCA, standard work, or visual management.
• Experience creating project plans, timelines, action trackers, process maps, layouts, dashboards, or cross-functional presentations.
• Basic understanding of manufacturing KPIs such as capacity, cycle time, labor, scrap, material yield, process capability, on-time delivery, or capital spending.
• Exposure to FMEA, Run at Rate, production trials, equipment design, tooling procurement, ergonomics, plant layouts, or logistics flow planning.
• Experience using structured problem-solving tools such as 4C, 5 Whys, fishbone analysis, A3, PDCA, or DMAIC.
• Participation in engineering design teams, operations projects, student leadership, Formula SAE, Baja SAE, robotics, capstone design, or similar activities.
• Interest in automotive manufacturing, industrial program management, product launch, and cross-functional project leadership.