Quality & Manufacturing Engineering Internship

Murphy, North Carolina  ·  On-site  ·  Now open for Spring and Summer 2027 terms

Internship and multi-term co-op options  ·  Open to undergraduate and graduate students  ·  Monday–Thursday schedule

Make the factory better. Prove it with data.

Every Aegis power supply passes through our production floor, our inspectors, and our test lab before it ships to a defense or aerospace customer. Quality and manufacturing engineers decide how that happens, how it gets built, how it gets checked, how long it takes, and how to make it better next time.

This is where engineering meets the real world: operators, schedules, standards, audits, and data. You won't run a simulation of a process improvement. You'll run the improvement, measure the result, and present it to leadership.

We operate under AS9100D, ISO 9001, and IPC workmanship standards the same frameworks used across defense, aerospace, and medical manufacturing. Hands-on experience inside a certified quality system is one of the most transferable things you can put on a résumé.

Four days on. Three days in the mountains.

Our engineering and manufacturing teams work Monday through Thursday, 10 hours a day. That means every weekend is a three-day weekend in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina.

Spend Fridays hiking the Nantahala National Forest, kayaking or swimming on Hiwassee Lake, paddling the local rivers, or just sitting back and relaxing. Murphy is a small mountain town with no rush-hour commute, and it sits within about two hours of Atlanta, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Asheville when you want a city weekend instead.

Pick the track that fits you

Quality Engineering

Work inside a live AS9100D and ISO 9001 quality system supporting defense and aerospace manufacturing.

You'll:

• Support First Article Inspections and receiving, in-process, and final inspection
• Investigate nonconformances and work root cause with 5-Why, fishbone, and 8D
• Help prepare for internal audits and follow corrective actions through to closure
• Analyze quality data and build the charts leadership actually uses to make decisions

Tools & skills: AS9100D, ISO 9001, IPC standards, 8D, GD&T, Excel

Good fit if: you're methodical, you notice what's off, and you want standards experience that follows you into any manufacturing career.

Quality & Process Improvement Engineering 

Quality Assurance process improvement, with more complex projects and more ownership.

You'll:

• Inspect and test components and finished products against IPC, ISO 9001, and AS9100 standards
• Support root cause analysis, 8Ds, internal audits, and document control
• Identify and evaluate Lean Six Sigma projects that reduce waste and strengthen quality
• Present findings in standard Lean Six Sigma Green Belt report format
• Take on project leadership in later terms

Tools & skills:  IPC, ISO 9001, AS9100, 8D, data analysis

Good fit if: you want more than one summer — and you want to come back to bigger responsibilities each time.

Manufacturing Engineering 

Find a problem on the floor, measure it, fix it, and prove the fix — working directly with our Quality Manager.

You'll:

• Identify potential process improvement projects across production and quality
• Gather and analyze quality, efficiency, and operational performance data
• Apply Lean Six Sigma methods to find root inefficiencies and propose data-driven solutions
• Write and present a final report in standard Green Belt format, then help implement it

Tools & skills: DMAIC, Lean, statistical analysis, Excel or Minitab

Good fit if: you want a completed, data-backed improvement project on your résumé before you graduate.

Industrial Engineering — Operations & Process Tracking

Help us go digital. We're laying the groundwork for an electronic scanning system that tracks every product as it moves through manufacturing, and this internship builds the operation plans it will run on.

You'll:

• Map current manufacturing workflows and identify the key points where product should be tracked
• Find inefficiencies and gaps in how work moves and gets recorded today
• Recommend how to convert standard operation plans into an electronic quality management system
• Work with production, quality, and IT to match tracking needs to system capabilities, then document and validate the transition

Tools & skills: Process mapping, value stream mapping, Lean, workflow and data tracking

Good fit if: you want a project with a clear before and after — and a hand in a company's digital transformation.

Industrial Engineering — Work Measurement & Flow

Make the floor work better, one station and one routing at a time.

You'll:

• Run time studies and work sampling to set and validate labor standards
• Map material flow and rethink work cell and workstation layout
• Support line balancing and bottleneck analysis
• Build and validate routings and standard work in our ERP system

Tools & skills: Time study, 5S, kaizen, value stream mapping, ERP/MRP, AutoCAD or Visio

Good fit if: you look at a messy process and immediately start redrawing it in your head.

What we're actually looking for

You don't need a previous internship. Class projects, qualifying GPA, a part-time job where you fixed how something got done, a student org you helped run better, all of it counts.

What matters:

• You're enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program in Industrial, Manufacturing, Quality, Mechanical, Electrical, or Systems Engineering, Engineering Technology, Operations Management, or a related field.
• You're comfortable with data. Excel is enough to start; Minitab or another statistics tool is a plus.
• You can read a drawing or a specification, or you want to learn.
• You treat the people on the production floor as the experts on their own work. You'll spend real time with them.
• You communicate clearly, in writing and in front of a room.

Lean Six Sigma training is helpful but not required. If you have Yellow or Green Belt coursework, tell us.

Graduate students: you're welcome here, and project scope is matched to your experience. The co-op track is a particularly good fit if your program supports multi-term placements.

What you'll leave with

• A completed improvement project with measurable results, presented to Aegis leadership.
• Hands-on experience inside an AS9100D, ISO 9001, and IPC quality environment.
• Mentorship from our Quality & Compliance leadership and engineering team.
• Increasing ownership and expanded opportunities

U.S. Person Requirement

Due to the nature of Aegis Power Systems’ work and applicable U.S. export control regulations, this position requires the individual to qualify as a U.S. Person as defined by applicable U.S. export control laws and regulations.

Aegis Power Systems is unable to provide employment visa sponsorship for this position.

Work Location

• On-site in Murphy, North Carolina

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Aegis Power Systems, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to building an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.