Technical Intern, Project Administration

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger•Newport Beach, CA

About The Position

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger is seeking a motivated, detail-oriented Project Administration Intern to support its technical team and learn how engineering projects are planned, tracked, and supported. The intern works with the Project Administrator, Project Managers, and technical staff on repeatable project coordination, data organization, documentation, meeting support, and routine reporting. The role helps project teams stay organized, communicate clearly, and keep project information current. Candidates are not required to perform technical work, although opportunities to assist with both administrative and technical activities may be available. The internship may provide a path toward a longer-term or permanent role for the right candidate. The role calls for organization, curiosity, dependability, clear communication, attention to detail, reliability, initiative, and follow-through. The intern should be comfortable asking questions, learning tools, taking direction, and respectfully following up when information is incomplete or unclear. Full-time temporary employees are eligible for medical insurance, paid holidays, and sick leave; part-time temporary employees are eligible for sick leave. Compensation depends on education level: undergraduate students earn $30.25–$32.75 per hour, graduate students earn $33.75–$36.00 per hour, and PhD students earn $38.25 per hour. Technical interns are eligible for a $1,000 sign-on bonus. The listed overall pay range is $30.25–$38.25 per hour, effective for 2027.

Requirements

Strong working knowledge of Excel, including formulas, filters, sorting, formatting, and basic charts or summaries.
Strong communication, organization, curiosity, reliability, attention to detail, and follow-through.
Willingness to learn new tools, ask questions, take direction, take initiative on assigned tasks, and follow up when information is incomplete or unclear.

Nice To Haves

Technical background through coursework, internship experience, or early career experience in structural, civil, mechanical, or another engineering discipline; hard sciences or construction management may also be considered.
Interest in project controls or project management.
Interest in learning Microsoft Project.
Interest in advanced Excel tools such as pivot tables, Power Query, Power Pivot, or macros.
Prior experience in an administrative, project coordination, or project controls support role.
Interest in supporting both administrative and technical activities.

Responsibilities

Assist the Project Administrator or Project Managers with day-to-day tracking for multiple engineering projects, including maintaining task lists, updating project tracking tools, organizing project folders, and following up on routine action items.
Help track project onboarding items, training requirements, site access needs, deliverable lists, and assigned project roles under the direction of the Project Administrator or Project Manager.
Handle project, client, budget, and contract-related information with appropriate care and discretion.
Assist with maintaining project schedules, work plans, internal deadlines, and deliverable calendars.
Compare current project information against planned milestones and flag missing, outdated, incomplete, or inconsistent information for follow-up.
Maintain shared tracking tools, project lists, reference materials, and recurring reporting tools across multiple active projects.
Help update project budget and schedule tracking tools and related records, identify missing or inconsistent data, and prepare routine summaries or status updates for review.
Use Excel to organize project data, maintain trackers, clean spreadsheets, perform basic checks, and support routine reporting.
Assist with meeting scheduling, preparation, agenda notes, minutes, action-item tracking, project documentation, and status updates.
Take clear notes during project and client meetings, prepare and distribute meeting notes, and help track action items through completion.
Keep project folders, references, and records organized and current.
Communicate professionally with project team members and, as appropriate, clients to request information, confirm details, and follow up on routine items under supervision.
Help identify repeatable tasks that can be clarified, simplified, or better documented, and contribute to checklists, templates, tracking tools, and other practical process-improvement tools.