Data Engineering & Machine Learning Internship

Data Internship Opportunity at Danone Haps

Are you looking for a challenging technical internship where data engineering, machine connectivity, and smart automation come together? Do you want to work in a real factory environment and help us transform raw machine signals into valuable insights? Then we have a fantastic opportunity for you within our Systems & Digital team at the baby nutrition factory in Haps, The Netherlands. We are looking for an Intern to help us build a complete data pipeline from machine PLC signals to an automated ML-based classification system.

About the department

The Systems & Digital department leads IT-enabled business transformation projects across the factory. Our focus is on implementing advanced data and automation solutions that improve operational performance. This includes deploying data analytics tools such as Power BI and Grafana, developing predictive maintenance capabilities, enabling a connected shopfloor, building line performance solutions, and driving robotization projects that support our journey toward a smarter, more efficient factory.

Your main responsibilities include:

• Building machine-learning classification models for time-based data, support data processing, cleaning, and optimization for historical and streaming datasets
• Develop a Python service that subscribes to MQTT topics, parses machine/PLC messages, writes structured data to a database
• Collaborate with maintenance teams. Contribute to continuous improvement by proposing and testing new ideas

About you

What are we looking for? We are looking for a motivated and passionate student who wants to work on a production supply point in a great team. The student will be able to work both independently and in a team. The student is studying Computer Science, Industrial Automation, Data Science (or similar), is a team player and can communicate fluently in English (spoken and written).

Key requirements:

• Enrolled as a last-years Bachelor's (HBO/WO) or Master's student for the entire duration of the internship.
• Resident of the Netherlands with a valid BSN number. Non-EU citizens must have a valid Dutch residency permit.
• Willing to travel to the factory office in Haps, NL (hybrid, ~3 days on site)
• Available from Febuary/March 2026 for at least 5 to 6 months, 4–5 days/week (32-40 hours)

Core Technical Skills (Must-Have):

Programming & Data

• Solid Python skills (scripts, APIs, basic services)
• Basic SQL knowledge
• Understanding of data models: tables, time series, labels, metadata

Machine Learning

• Basics of supervised learning (features, labels, train/test split)
• Experience with Machine Learning libraries
• Ability to evaluate models (accuracy, confusion matrix, etc.)
• Experience cleaning and preprocessing time-based data

Nice-to-Have Technical Skills

• Integration / Streaming: Basic understanding of MQTT publish/subscribe, familiarity with APIs, ability to move data through simple pipelines (PLC → broker → script → Database)
• Visualization: Experience with Grafana, Power BI, or similar

Soft Skills

• Analytical mindset with an interest in efficiency and automation
• Strong communication skills; Comfortable and able to communicate with a diverse range of colleagues
• Proactive attitude with the ability to work independently and in a team
• Structured working style with attention to detail
• Highly motivated and eager to challenge yourself

About Danone

At Danone we are committed to our mission “bringing health, through food to as many people as possible”. Working together to make sure that our brands, like Hipro, Nutricia, Alpro, Activia, Nutrilon and Evian, create real benefits for people, communities and the planet. You will be part of one of the largest Certified B Corps™ in the world. Being B Corp means to be part of a select movement of companies verified to be meeting the highest standards of social and environmental criteria and using business as a force for good. One Planet. One Health.

We offer:

We offer a 5–6 month internship in a professional production environment. Finally, we also offer a work-laptop, work-phone, a student salary of €650 per month (40h work week) and travel allowance during your internship.

If you are interested or if you desire more information, please send an e-mail to maxim.bashtan@danone.com. Together we can see what kind of project you will be most enthusiastic about. We are looking forward to meet you soon!