Outside Sales Internship - Summer 2027

Rust-Automation-; Irvine (CA); Hybrid; USD 17,000 - 25,000; Full time

Job summary

Rust Automation and Controls in Irvine, CA is seeking an Outside Sales Summer Intern for 2027 to gain hands-on exposure to technical sales within the Orange County territory. You will ride with seasoned engineers and sales professionals to see conversations with plant engineers and end users unfold.

Duration is 10-12 weeks, Monday–Friday, 8-5, with opportunities to build a product demo, pursue new accounts, and set up initial meetings for the team.

Responsibilities

• Join joint sales calls with Outside Sales Engineers, Business Development Managers, District Sales Managers, and RVP to observe real technical conversations with plant engineers and end users.
• Deep-dive on a single product category to build a demo presentation and present it to customers alongside the team.
• Assist with SDR-style outreach in the territory, including identifying new target accounts, researching companies, and tracking contacts for handoff to OSEs.
• Reach out to prospective customers to set up introductory meetings for the sales engineers to pursue.

Job description

Rust Automation and Controls is a family-owned industrial instrumentation and automation sales company founded in 1976 and headquartered in West Jordan, Utah. For more than 50 years, we've supported customers across the Western United States with measurement and control solutions that keep critical operations running — refineries, power plants, mining operations, water and wastewater treatment facilities, and manufacturing lines that can't afford downtime. Our sales team is built on real relationships with the people who run those plants, backed by manufacturer partnerships like Endress+Hauser and deep technical expertise that goes well beyond a product catalog .

Position Overview

Position: Outside Sales Summer Intern 2027
Location: Irvine, CA (Hybrid)

This summer, we're looking for a student who wants to see what that work actually looks like from the inside — not from a training manual, but riding alongside the people who do it every day in the Orange County territory.

Duration: 10-12 weeks, Monday - Friday 8-5pm

What You'll Be Doing

• Join joint sales calls with our Outside Sales Engineers, Business Development Managers, District Sales Managers, and RVP to see real technical conversations with plant engineers and end users unfold firsthand
• Go deep on a single product category — learn it well enough to build your own demo presentation and bring it out to real customers alongside the team for lunch and learns
• Assist with SDR-style work in the territory, including:
• Identifying new target accounts worth pursuing
• Researching companies and tracking down the right contacts to hand off to our OSEs
• Reaching out to prospective customers to set up introductory meetings that our sales engineers can then step into

Is This You?

Do you want real exposure to what a technical sales career looks like, rather than a summer of busywork on the sidelines?

Do you get energized learning a product inside and out, and enjoy the challenge of explaining something technical clearly to someone who's never seen it before?

Do you like the idea of talking to real people — customers, prospects, teammates — rather than staying behind a desk all summer?

Do you take initiative on research and outreach, even when nobody's checking in on you step by step?

Do you want to learn what it actually takes to grow a territory, from the first cold outreach to the relationship it eventually becomes?

If you answered yes, we'd love to have you spend your summer with us. You'll leave with a real sense of what a career in technical sales looks like — and we'll get to know you as a potential future teammate along the way.