Internship, Solar Hardware Engineer, PV Cell, Energy Engineering (Winter/Spring 2027)

What to Expect

Consider before submitting an application:

This position is expected to start January 2027 and continue through the entire Winter/Spring term (i.e through April/May 2027) or into Summer 2027 if available. We ask for a minimum of 12 weeks, full-time (40 hours/week) and on-site, for most internships.

International Students: If your work authorization is through CPT, please consult your school before applying. You must be able to work 40 hours per week. Many students will be limited to part-time during the academic year.

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.

Within solar hardware engineering, the electrical and optical team designs the core PV cells and modules transforming energy in Tesla’s solar products. As we advance next-generation cell architectures and metallization processes, rapid reliability testing is critical to ensure long-term field performance at high manufacturing throughput.

The intern within the Electrical Design team will develop and validate accelerated cell-level screening methodologies to drastically shorten feedback loops from months to days. By simulating real-world environmental stress and material interactions—specifically encapsulant hydrolysis, acid-driven grid-line corrosion, and contact degradation— you will leverage device physics and high-precision characterization to isolate local series resistance increases, de-risk new cell designs, and directly inform material selection for full-scale PV module manufacturing.

Location: Palo Alto, CA

What You’ll Do

• Support the development and calibration of accelerated chemical stress tests (e.g., bare-cell liquid immersion under controlled temperatures and concentrations) to simulate long-term field degradation
• Perform pre- and post-stress electrical and optical characterization using tools such as Dark IV, Suns-Voc, EL/PL imaging, and cross-sectional analysis
• Assist in analyzing characterization data to track spatial degradation patterns, series resistance increases, and grid-line corrosion
• Benchmark experimental test results against industry literature to aid in building a "paste & encapsulant compatibility index"
• Document experimental procedures, summarize lab findings, and share results with cross-functional engineering teams to help inform material selection decisions

What You’ll Bring

• Currently pursuing a degree in Applied Physics, Electrical Engineering, Semiconductor Engineering, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related field
• Hands-on laboratory experience with PV characterization techniques (Dark IV, Suns-Voc, Electroluminescence/Photoluminescence imaging, cross-sectional imaging)
• Experience with experimental design (DOE), chemical safety protocols, and accelerated stress/reliability testing
• Strong background in solar cell physics and degradation mechanisms
• Data analysis skills (preferably Python or MATLAB) for data analysis, electrical parameter extraction and image processing
• Excellent communication skills to document screening standards and present findings to engineering teams