Process Engineering Intern

Job Description

Process Engineering Intern | Coherent Corp.

The Tone:
This is an internship at Coherent Corp., located in Newark, DE. Coherent is a global leader specializing in lasers, engineered materials, and networking components. As a vertically integrated manufacturing company, Coherent develops innovative products across diverse markets including industrial, optical communications, military, life sciences, semiconductor equipment, and consumer goods. This Process Engineering Intern role is crucial for enhancing manufacturing efficiency and product quality by collecting, organizing, and analyzing raw material, process, and quality data to identify critical relationships between material variation, product defects, and overall yield. The intern will lead a significant summer project focused on correlating key raw material characteristics and slip-making parameters with high-yield, low-defect product outcomes, directly contributing to operational excellence.

The TL;DR
• Role: Internship
• Type: Temporary/Seasonal
• Location: Newark, DE

• Team: Cross-functional, collaborating with engineering, operations, quality, and laboratory.
• Mission: Identify relationships between material variation, product defects, and yield to improve manufacturing outcomes.
• Tech Stack: Excel, statistical methods, experimental design (DOE), process capability analysis.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Analyze Production Data: Systematically collect, organize, and interpret raw material, slip-making, process, and quality data from various sources to pinpoint relationships between material variation, common product defects, and manufacturing yield.
• Lead a Summer Project: Independently manage a structured summer project, driving milestones and correlating specific raw material characteristics and slip-making parameters to achieve high-yield and low-defect product outcomes.
• Develop Data Systems: Support the ongoing development of a comprehensive data collection and traceability system, ensuring clear links between incoming raw material lots, specific slip batches, various process conditions, and finished product quality.
• Execute Experiments: Design and conduct experiments to rigorously validate suspected causes of defects and confirm the optimal process conditions that consistently lead to improved manufacturing yield.
• Collaborate and Recommend: Work closely with cross-functional teams including engineering, operations, quality, and laboratory personnel to gather essential process knowledge, align on testing priorities, and translate experimental results into actionable, practical recommendations for process improvements.
• Present Findings: Prepare detailed technical summaries and deliver concise presentations of project findings, key insights, and final recommendations for new process controls, next-step trials, and future areas of investigation to site leadership.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Early career Bachelor’s or Master’s candidate in a relevant engineering discipline such as Materials Science, Ceramic Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or an equivalent technical degree.
• Experience: Preferred experience includes practical application of data analysis, experimental design (DOE), and technical problem-solving methodologies, demonstrated through academic projects, coursework, or previous internship roles.
• Skills:
• Demonstrated leadership capabilities to independently manage a defined technical project, effectively drive milestones, and communicate progress clearly to various stakeholders.
• Strong ability to collect, organize, and accurately interpret complex data from multiple sources to identify significant trends and robustly support conclusions.
• Working knowledge and proficiency in using Excel or similar data analysis tools for effective data manipulation and reporting.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, enabling the preparation of concise technical updates and compelling final presentations to diverse audiences.
• Strong interpersonal, teaming, and problem-solving skills to work collaboratively within cross-functional teams and address technical challenges.
• Bonus: Familiarity with advanced statistical methods, formal Design of Experiments (DOE) principles, or process capability analysis techniques.