What to Expect

Disclaimer: This position is expected to start around May 2023 and continue through the entire Summer term (i.e., through August/September) or into early Fall 2023 if available. We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks, full-time, for most internships. Please consider before applying. International Students: If your work authorization is through CPT, please consult your school on your ability to work 40 hours per week before applying. Again, please do not apply until you know you can work 40 hours per week. This is required for external applicants. Many students will be limited to part-time during the academic year.  

Internship Programs at Tesla 

The Internship Recruiting Team is driven by the passion to recognize and develop emerging talent. Our year-round program places the best students in positions where they will grow technically, professionally, and personally through their experience working closely with their Manager, Mentor, and team. We are dedicated to providing an experience that allows the intern to experience life at Tesla by including them in projects that are critical to their team's success.

What You’ll Do

About The Team 

Craftsmanship is the perception of quality that a customer has about a product, derived through sight, touch, sound, and scent. The Tesla Craftsmanship team is responsible for ensuring that all Tesla products have the highest level of perceived quality so they are utterly compelling in the store, and provide a faultless experience during use.  

How do we do it? At the early stages we work with the Product Management teams to quantify the required product content, the Design Studio to identify and resolve any issues relating to the concept, the Engineering and Dimensional teams to develop achievable, world-class gap and flush targets, and the Manufacturing and Quality teams to identify and prioritize issues during pre-production and launch.  

Unique aspects of an internship in the Craftsmanship team include: 

Broad vehicle exposure – We get involved in the design and engineering of all customer-facing systems, from seats to interior trim to exterior systems. Embedded in the Engineering team, this broad exposure makes for a huge variety in projects, cross-functional interaction, an ability to have a broad impact to the end product, and accelerates understanding of the design detail of multiple systems across the vehicle. 

Target Setting, Communication and Validation – We set measurable engineering targets that will deliver world-class craftsmanship through competitor vehicle benchmarking and data analysis; validate those targets through physical models, mockups, and using digital visualization tools; communicate and negotiate those targets with the wider Engineering and Studio teams, ensuring that they are achievable; and support the Engineering and Manufacturing teams in meeting those targets. 

Quantification of Customer Feeling – Much of what the Craftsmanship team does is turning subjective customer perception into objective engineering targets by quantifying the premium look, sound, or feel of a system, and identifying all the sensory inputs that will deliver a “wow” experience. For instance, the premium feeling of an armrest that is not too soft or hard, not too thick or thin is quantified with an engineering specification graph that defines force and deflection.  

What You’ll Bring

Requirements