Join Us for an Unforgettable Summer Internship Experience!
Looking to grow your skills, build your network, and have a little fun along the way? Our Summer Internship Program offers the perfect mix of hands-on experience and community-building activities designed to support both your personal and professional development.
Over the course of the summer, you'll dive into meaningful work that will expand your knowledge and challenge you to think creatively. But it's not all work-we believe in balance.
You'll also get the chance to:
Connect with fellow interns and early-career professionals through engaging networking events
Unwind with movie nights, beach days, and celebrate National Intern Day
Explore our cutting-edge science during two half days of guided laboratory tours, where you'll visit 8 of our top research facilities and see innovation in action
Whether you're looking to kick-start your career or simply learn more about the exciting work we do, this is more than just an internship-it's your first step into a vibrant, supportive, and forward-thinking community.
HRL Laboratories pioneers the next frontiers of physical and information science. Delivering transformative technologies in automotive, aerospace and defense, HRL advances the critical missions of its customers to help them remove limitations and create competitive advantage. HRL then transitions the work back to customers - ready for real-world application. For more than 70 years, HRL's rich portfolio of scientific discoveries and engineering innovations continues to build on each other - often in unexpected, profound and far-reaching ways. As a private company owned jointly by Boeing and GM, HRL prioritizes purpose over profit, significantly advancing the state of the art.
Sensors & Electronics (SEL)
HRL Laboratories develops radiofrequency, millimeter-wave and electro-optical sensors using state-of-the-art materials and device fabrication processes to deliver agile, mission-ready systems. Our high-performance solutions are highly integrated, architecturally low cost, and optimized for size, weight and power efficiency while leveraging commercial, custom and novel mixed-signal innovations.
Position Summary:
This Summer internship opportunity encourages you to explore multiple facets of engineering in a single role from design to detailed analyses, programming, and hands-on integration and testing. This opportunity will challenge you to work on pioneering technologies in a mission focused environment. HRL is seeking a Summer Intern to support the design, simulation, programming, and integration and testing of drone mounted sensors. In this role, the candidate will join a diverse team of engineers and scientists to primarily support system integration and tests and participate in system design, perform complex analyses in preparation for the experimental tests alongside a team of HRL professionals.
Essential Duties:
In this internship role, while primarily focused on integration and testing tasks, a strong candidate should possess a well-rounded skill set in mechanical, electronics, and programming areas and will be required to support and assist senior staff scientists and engineers in the product development cycle.
The intern will perform tasks that include:
• Work with RF and electrical engineering teams to design, simulate, integrate, and test mechanical and thermal assemblies to meet customer requirements.
• Perform simulations of mechanical systems (FEA of CAD components and assemblies) and electronics systems (SPICE simulations) for electronics and RF subsystems.
• Prepare design specifications, component drawings, assembly drawings, tolerance analysis and interface control documents with application of GD&T and develop system assembly instructions.
• Integrate and validate system hardware in a laboratory environment.
• Contribute to software development to monitor, control, and acquire data from and RF subsystems.
• Present progress and key findings in technical staff team meetings.
Required Qualifications:
• Students currently in upper-level undergraduate course work in Mechanical, Electrical, Electromechanical, Mechatronics, or other engineering related disciplines.
• Coursework covering mechatronics design is desired. Hands-on experience in design, integration and test of mechanical assemblies and electronic systems.
• Hands-on experience integrating and testing mechanical and electrical system components is highly desired.
• Experience with software for mechanical hardware design (e.g. SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor), electrical design (e.g. Eagle CAD, Altium Designer), finite element analysis (e.g. Ansys, COMSOL), programming languages (e.g. Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW) will highlight a strong candidate.
• Knowledge in mechanical design principles from the component to subsystem level, including GD&T, and hands-on experience in mechanical assembly integration and testing is a must.
• Familiarity with electrical engineering design software, standard electronic test equipment such as oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, and signal generators.
• Working knowledge of electronic parts and components, including connectors, cables, printed circuit boards and device packages.
• Basic understanding of electronic and/or RF systems is a plus.
• Experience in a university research lab, or industrial research and development company is a plus.
Physical Requirements:
• Must be able to work for extended periods while standing or sitting at a computer workstation, engineering workstations, safely use complex electronic equipment, have good oral and written communication.
• Must be sufficiently mobile, have visual and hearing acuity, and manual dexterity to safely work with hand tools within a laboratory environment.
• Able to interact with colleagues and willingness to work in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
Special Requirements:
• US Citizenship with the ability to obtain and maintain a US Government security clearance
• Must been enrolled in an educational program following the end of your intern assignment
Compensation and Benefits:
• Pay Range: $30 - $35 an hour
• The pay will be determined on your educational year. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hires for the position. Your recruiter can share more about the specific range during the hiring process.
• Benefits: 80 hours of Sick time
Assignment Length:
• HRL Summer internship assignments typically span 8 to 12 weeks, with three available cohort start dates: May 25, June 1 and June 15.
Stipend:
• For students who will be relocating and renting in the Malibu, CA area for the summer we offer a 1 time stipend to help with moving costs. Specific information on pay out and requirements to be discussed with your recruiter.
Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)
Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At HRL, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.
If you would like more information about Equal Employment Opportunity as an applicant under the law, please go to Employees & Job Applicants | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
For our privacy policy please visit: www.hrl.com/privacy
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
