Summer Internships
Imagine being surrounded by a team of curious, driven and passionate problem solvers all working towards the same goal – improving lives by providing innovative, competitive and high-quality healthcare solutions for people across the globe.
We believe that you can realise your potential when you’re empowered to solve problems and gain hands-on experience, when you’re coached by experts, and when you’re surrounded by supportive teammates.
Our Summer Internships run over the summer, full time for 10 weeks, and exclude a three-week shutdown for Christmas and New Year.
Our internship programme has been paused for 2024. We will release more details about our 2025 programme in the new year.
Our Internships
Quality Control
You could be working within our Quality Control team, performing HPLC testing, method development and validation studies. You could be testing and releasing raw materials and finished products, analysing stability samples, redeveloping test methods, and performing data analysis.
This would be great for science graduates, specifically in microbiology and chemistry, or other science or laboratory-based degrees.
Quality Assurance
You could be a part of the Quality Assurance Team, working on our compliance framework and supporting the implementation of a new electronic Quality Management System. You could be updating internal procedures, creating a governance structure, writing audit questionnaires, and supporting the testing and validation of a new system.
This will suit science graduates, specifically chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and other science or laboratory-based degrees.
New Product Development (NPD)
You could be working directly on R&D product formulation, testing formulation samples, and non-GMP and GMP stability samples. Learning first-hand how pharmaceutical products are developed on the bench.
This will suit science graduates, specifically chemistry, analytical, medicinal chemistry, and other science or laboratory-based degrees.
Supply Chain
You could be looking at digitising our warehouse environment. You could be looking at the value and benefits of an improved visual system for the supply chain which will coordinate the work across all our supply chain teams. You could be looking at the best way to measure the teams’ digital skills and how to meet the training needs to bridge the gap and support our people.
You will get great insight into how supply chain works so this would be great for business graduates, business analytics graduates, or supply chain graduates.
Programme Delivery
You could be working with our Programme Delivery Team who juggle many projects, at any one time. Specifically, you could be working with our Project Managers to revamp an area in our Production facility, supporting with contractor management and validating equipment, or assisting with building and equipment changes. You could also be assisting on some of our R&D projects.
This would be great for mechanical engineering or mechatronics graduates. This would also suit science graduates, specifically biomedical science, chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and other science or laboratory-based degrees.
Chemical Compliance
You could be working within our SHHE (Safety, Health, Hygiene and Environment) team, ensuring we are chemically compliant. You would support the team with completing and reviewing toxicity classifications and making sure our cover sheets for safety data sheets are completed.
This will suit science graduates, specifically chemistry.
Operations Technology/Digital
You could be involved in helping to future proof our current systems by seeing where new technology and concepts could provide benefits. You would be looking into Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning techniques to see what can be applied to laboratory data which will give us insights on trending, anomalies, patterns, and correlations.
This would be great for digital graduates, engineering graduates, mechatronics graduates, and anything in between.
About you
To be eligible for these opportunities you will either need to be in your final year of study, have completed study within the last 6 months, or be studying at a NZ based tertiary provider. You’ll be…
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A PROBLEM SOLVER – you will be empowered to overcome challenges and gain hands-on experience to see how some industry experts solve problems.
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CURIOUS TO LEARN – you will be open to being coached from some of the best minds in the business and supported by some awesome teammates. You will always be listening to what’s going on around you and you will be curious to learn.
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A COLLABORATOR – you will collaborate and communicate like a champ, working across our business, building relationships and generally making a difference across the business.
Hear from our Interns
We know that carefully crafted recruitment collateral and catchy taglines can be compelling. But, let’s be honest, what you really want is the inside scoop from actual interns and graduates. We believe in transparency and want to give you a sneak peek into what it’s really like to be an intern at Douglas. This is the real deal!
What have been your highlights since joining as an intern?
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Jenny – New Product Development Intern: “One of my key highlights at Douglas was having the opportunity to help out at the new Douglas Innovation building open day. It was an overwhelming experience to witness the amount of support from the industry partners, academia as well as healthcare experts from around the world.”
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Sandalika – New Product Development Intern: “Being able to join a wonderful team that encourages you to grow in your career and as a person. A team that shares their experiences and knowledge with you which allows you to learn.”
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Jaiden – Quality Assurance Intern: “Taking on customer complaints has been good for me. Allows me to work within the plant, in both the packing and manufacturing areas.”
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Anna – Programme Delivery Intern: “Getting to be a part of such a motivating and supportive team. Everyone is always willing to lend a helping hand.”
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Eden – Technical Services Intern: “Douglas has a great company culture, and everyone here is really welcoming which has been a highlight! Also being able to go into production and learn how our products are made, from start to finish has been really eye opening.”
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Aaron – Quality Control Intern: “Once the internship was over I was able to put myself forward for a plethora of opportunities at Douglas – being elected a H&S Rep, becoming a Chemical Management Representative, and now leading a team of my own in Quality Control.”
How has your experience opened your eyes to new career opportunities and pathways?
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Aaron – Quality Control Intern: “The internship programme really kickstarted my career with the opportunity and space to just ask a whole bunch of questions – I was able to query everything and really get to understand the industry by being a part of it. It’s enabled me to start from Quality Control and dip my hands in to H&S, Quality Assurance, Project Management, and most recently team leadership!”
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Sandalika – New Product Development Intern: “It allowed me to see how many different career opportunities there are and how it takes different roles working together to execute a project.”
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Jenny – New Product Development Intern: “My role in the NPD team gives me the opportunity to work with a lot of different teams at Douglas and has allowed me to understand how crucial every role is at different stages of product development – starting from the birth of an idea to the final product launch.”
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Eden – Technical Services Intern: “Technical Services was not an area I knew much about, let alone pictured myself in. However, since being an intern, I’ve learned a lot about the different streams within it and have ended up in a role I enjoy, that I wouldn’t have otherwise realised was out there. It’s difficult to really comprehend all of the roles within the business without being directly exposed to it.”
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Jaiden – Quality Assurance Intern: “Behind the scenes work is massive. I never realised how much work goes into a pharmaceutical company and how different reality is vs what’s portrayed in uni/labs.”
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Anna – Programme Delivery Intern: “During university, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after my degree or what jobs were out there. The internship gave me exposure to many different pathways and allowed me to find an area that I was really interested in.”
What has surprised you since joining as an intern?
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Eden – Technical Services Intern: “How quickly you pick up on all the jargon! The industry has a lot of new terms and acronyms – but it doesn’t take long before you start speaking fluent pharma.”
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Sandalika – New Product Development Intern: “How you are only at the beginning of your career, and you don’t have to have it all figured out right away. Learn from the people around you and take every opportunity that comes.”
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Anna – Programme Delivery Intern: “The complexity of the business. There is so much to learn about in all different areas of the business which makes the work exciting and means every day is an opportunity to learn something new.”
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Jenny – New Product Development Intern: “As an intern who entered a professional workspace for the first time, I was surprised at how friendly and supportive everyone in NPD was and the work environment is awesome!”
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Aaron – Quality Control Intern: “Coming out of Uni and in the initial months at Douglas, I felt like my degree just what got me in the door and could be forgotten. But the longer I’m here, the more I find I’m still thinking back to, and using, the knowledge I gained at Uni – information I thought would only be useful for that one course I’m applying to what I do every day!”
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Jaiden – Quality Assurance Intern: “The community at Douglas is amazing. Everyone is very friendly, and the work events are above and beyond.”
Sandalika - New Product Development Intern
“Being able to join a wonderful team that encourages you to grow in your career and as a person has been a real highlight. A team that shares their experiences and knowledge with you allows you to learn.”
Anna - Programme Delivery Intern
“During university, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after my degree or what jobs were out there. The internship gave me exposure to many different pathways and allowed me to find an area that I was really interested in.”
Eden - Technical Services Intern
“I was surprised how quickly you pick up on all the jargon! The industry has a lot of new terms and acronyms – but it doesn’t take long before you start speaking fluent pharma.”