Material Planning Intern

Location: Austin, TX Department: Supply Chain Employment Type: Intern Location Type: On-site

About Base

Base is America’s next-generation power company. We’re rebuilding the foundation of modern civilization–electricity–by deploying a vast network of distributed batteries that is transforming today’s fragile, centralized grid into a resilient and abundant system. We are engineers, operators, and creatives solving some of the most complex, interdisciplinary challenges of our time.

About the Role

Base designs its own hardware, builds it in its own factory, installs it at homes, and sells the power. That vertical integration is our advantage, and it means a single missing part can stop production.

As a Material Planning Intern, you will own and plan material for a set of assigned parts, translate the production schedule into supply signals our suppliers can act on, and find shortages weeks before they reach the factory floor and coordinate with the manufacturing team.

This is not a shadowing internship. You will be given parts to own, suppliers to talk to, and a production schedule that depends on you. The work sits between Manufacturing, Engineering, Procurement, Quality, and Logistics, and suits someone who thinks in systems, is comfortable acting on incomplete information, and likes building durable, robust processes.

What You’ll Do

Own day-to-day material planning for assigned parts: run MRP, net demand against on-hand, on-order, and in-transit inventory, and keep purchase orders aligned to the build plan.

Turn the production plan into rolling forecasts for suppliers, then track what they committed to against what actually arrived.

Identify shortages and supply risk ahead of the floor, and escalate with the data behind it.

Support material readiness for engineering changes and new parts — phasing new material in and clearing old material out.

Dig into planning data: lead times, safety stock, order quantities, and supplier delivery performance. Recommend changes and show the math.

Build and document one lasting improvement to how the team plans — a dashboard, a model, or an automated report — and hand it off.

What You’ll Bring

Working toward a degree in supply chain, industrial engineering, operations, mechanical engineering, business, or another quantitative field — or on a comparable path.

Strong spreadsheet skills and comfort working with large, messy datasets. SQL, Python, or scripting is a plus.

Genuine interest in how physical products get built. Exposure to an MRP or ERP system (Odoo, SAP, NetSuite) is a plus, not a requirement.

Clear, direct written communication — you will send forecasts and escalations to suppliers and internal teams.

Bias to action and follow-through. You close loops without being asked twice.

About the Team

Global Supply Management owns every part that goes into a Base battery and its associated systems. This includes sourcing , planning, and getting it to the line on time. We are ramping in-house manufacturing of our own battery product while qualifying second sources for critical components, which means the plan changes often and the cost of being wrong is a stopped line. Material planning is where that pressure lands: the team decides what to buy, when, and how much, and builds the systems that make those calls repeatable.

Please note: Base is a startup, which means priorities shift and evolve quickly. Your role may expand or change based on the needs of the business at any given time, so the responsibilities listed may not be exhaustive.

Our Values

First Principles Thinking: Question assumptions. Principles > rules.

Operate at Base Pace: Focus on what matters, act quickly, and learn by doing.

Give & Get Feedback: Be direct, be humble, and maintain a growth mindset.

Everyone’s an Owner: Follow through on commitments and own results.

Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Drive clarity and make calls with imperfect information.

Committed to the Mission: Rebuilding the grid is a big challenge. We work hard because we care deeply about the impact we’re creating. We work in-person. It’s not a 9-to-5. We are all-in.

Fun & Optimism Coexist with Grit: Collaboration and celebration coincide with the intensity of building real things.

Do the best work of your life at Base.