Intern - Operations Planning & Optimization

Intern - Operations Planning & Optimization

$25.00-$30.00/hour

Get inside the planning engine of a nationwide moving and storage operation, and leave with analysis and tools the team keeps running.

PODS moves and stores for customers across the country. Every day, Operations decides how many jobs it can execute and at which Storage Centers, while delivering best-in-class safety and customer experience. The Operations Planning team steers that through reporting and analysis, capacity planning, and ownership of the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process.

Youll report to the Sr. Manager, Operations Planning and work on live planning problems from your first week. Youll own one or two focus projects with real deliverables, spend the rest of your time inside the planning cycle alongside Data Science, Finance and regional Operations, and present your results to Operations leadership at the end of the summer.

What youll do

- Own a focus project. Build a repeatable view of how each Market and Storage Center performs against plan; validate a capacity or forecasting model against actuals and recommend refinements; run a scenario or optimization analysis showing how demand, labor or truck availability shift what the operation can commit to; or stand up a new KPI dashboard that replaces a manual report.

- Support S&OP. Help prepare the weekly and monthly demand, capacity and labor inputs, and learn how they reconcile into a single plan.

- Model scenarios. Build Excel and Python analyses that show how changes in demand, labor or trucks affect capacity, and recommend the right tradeoffs.

- Find optimization opportunities. Spot better ways to allocate capacity and labor across Markets and bring them to the team with the numbers.

- Steward performance. Build and refresh the KPI dashboards used in business reviews, track whether improvement initiatives hold, and report the results.

- Code and automate. Write SQL and Python (or R), replace manual recurring reports with automated ones, and use AI tools like Claude or Copilot to move faster.

- Get into the field. Shadow Storage Center and regional teams to see how a job is booked, planned and completed, so your analysis reflects how the work really happens.

What youll walk away with

- A completed project with real deliverables, presented to Operations leadership

- A working understanding of S&OP and how a nationwide operation plans, runs and measures itself

- Hands-on experience with SQL, Python, Snowflake and AI-assisted analysis on live capacity and labor data

- Mentorship from the Sr. Manager, Operations Planning and working sessions with Data Science, Finance and regional Operations

- Dashboards and analysis the team keeps using after you leave

Who were looking for

- Coursework or project experience in statistics, forecasting or optimization, and strong Excel skills for modeling and analysis

- Working knowledge of SQL and Python (or R) from coursework, projects or a prior internship

- Hands-on use of AI tools (Claude, Copilot or similar) for analysis or coding, with the judgment to check the output

- Genuine curiosity about how demand, capacity and labor interact in a physical operation

- Comfortable turning a loosely defined question into a clear analysis, and explaining your results in plain language to analysts and operational leaders alike

- Takes ownership of a deliverable from first draft to finished product and asks for help early

Nice to have: Snowflake, Tableau or Power BI; coursework in supply chain, operations management or planning.

Job qualifications

- Currently in the final years of a bachelors degree, or enrolled in a masters or MBA program

- Majoring in Supply Chain Management, Business, Industrial Engineering, Operations Research, Analytics, or a related field, ideally with a data science, analytics, or AI focus

- Coursework or hands-on experience with SQL and Python or R

- No full-time experience required

- Bonus points for: a prior internship, co-op, or substantial project in planning, analytics, or operations; coursework or experience in supply chain, logistics, or another capacity-constrained business

The details

- Temporary internship for Summer 2027; term dates to be confirmed

- Regular business hours, Monday-Friday

- Climate-controlled office, with occasional travel to Storage Centers or headquarters

- Must be able to use a computer for up to 8 hours a day, stand and walk up to 8 hours a day, and lift up to 50 lbs

- May be subject to a pre-employment background check and drug screening in accordance with company policy

PODS Enterprises, LLC is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer. We will not discriminate unlawfully against qualified applicants or employees based on race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, physical or mental disability, marital status, place of birth, military service status, or any other basis protected by law.

This description indicates the general nature of the work, the knowledge and skills typically required, and usual working conditions. It is not a comprehensive list of all responsibilities or requirements.