Quality Microbiology Intern

At Nestlé Nutrition, our mission is to nurture a Healthier Generation. We aim to achieve this by leading the way in Research and Development of science proven nutrition solutions and by partnering with parents and healthcare professionals around the world. From pre-conception to adulthood, we are widening our reach and opening up new opportunities across the lifelong nutrition journey.

Position Snapshot

Location: Konolfingen, Switzerland  

Company: Nestlé Product & Technology Center (NPTC) Nutrition 
Act. Rate: Full-Time Act. Rate 100%

Type of contract: Internship, 6 months 

Start date: ASAP

What we offer at Nestlé

International, diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment : Read more about our Nestlé Community

Opportunities to have an impact and contribute to your team’s success

Endless learning opportunities and enriching experiences

Strong mentorship for your professional growth

Professional network and route to entry level position

Position Summary 

As a Quality Microbiology Intern, you will contribute to experimental design, method development, and validation activities supporting food safety and process innovation. Your work will span lab protocols, microbial behavior studies, and thermal inactivation testing.

A Day in the Life of a Quality Microbiology Intern

Support R&D experiments and protocols for method development, validation, and technical assistance

• Assist in developing lab procedures for process and product validation


• Help define and verify surrogate strain testing procedures


• Investigate qualification of new surrogates for novel process technologies


• Contribute to refining validation tools and protocols


• Help create training materials

Developing tools to improve manufacturing hygienic environment

• Support development of digital tools

Assist with thermal inactivation studies

• Conduct experiments on Salmonella and surrogates in high-oil solutions to determine inactivation kinetics

What will make you successful

• Bachelor’s degree or master’s student in Food Microbiology, Food Biotechnology, Food safety or related field


• Interest in predictive microbiology modelling and informatics


• Microbiological laboratory experience acquired in corporate or academic environment


• Experience or strong interest in working with nutrition and dairy products


• Good communication skills


• Attention to detail, paired with a curious mindset and a strong team spirit


• Digital Savviness


• First working experience is a plus


• Fluent in English, any other language is a plus

Nestlé is committed to the accessibility of its recruitment process. If you require an adaptation during the recruitment process, please do let us know so we can support you effectively. All information will be treated confidentially.

At Nestlé Research and Development in Konolfingen near Bern / Switzerland, we develop for Nestlé worldwide, new products, processes and packaging concepts for a broad range of products of our Nutrition, Dairy, Health Science and Coffee businesses. In addition, we also provide technical assistance to our factories.