Strategy Operations Manager Internships
Strategy operations manager internships give university students, recent graduates, and early-career switchers hands-on project experience, mentorship from working strategy operations managers, and, at many employers, a path toward a full-time offer. Roles are concentrated across Technology & Software, with TikTok, NEW YORK STATE HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY, and CECP among the employers posting roles now.
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Ally Behavior is a full-time, center-based, early intervention Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy program, serving children with autism ranging from 18 months to 6 years of age. Our mission is to deliver the highest quality therapy to help our early learners reach their potential to communicate, improve social skills, and prepare for academic success. The children we serve are at the heart of everything we do and we are passionate about our commitment to having a meaningful impact in the lives of our children and their families.
MBA Summer Internship Job Description:
A ten week summer internship for MBA students who want to run businesses. It is the front door to our Chief of Staff (CXO) and Sandy Spring Operations Leadership Development Program (LDP) roles.
Location: Tysons, VA. In person, with travel to Ally centers across Maryland, Virginia, and the DC area.
Reports to: An executive sponsor on the leadership team, with direct exposure to the CEO.
Dates: Ten weeks, June through August. Some flexibility on start and end dates.
Please include a cover letter so we can get to know you better and understand why you believe you will be a good fit for our team! Applications submitted without a cover letter will not be considered.
About Ally Behavior Centers:
Ally Behavior is a fast-growing autism therapy company, built around exceptional clinical quality and an unmatched family experience. We have grown at roughly 70% CAGR over the last four years and we are building toward our next chapter: 10x'ing our center footprint over the next five years.
Scaling something this important requires more than plans; it requires leaders who can translate strategy into execution, build durable operating systems, and do the hard, unglamorous work to drive outcomes for kids and families.
This company has been built by investing in high-potential people earlier in their career and giving them meaningful responsibility as the business scales. Many of our leaders have grown into their roles by taking ownership of hard problems, delivering impact, and earning expanded scope over time. This internship is how we start that relationship earlier.
Overall, Ally Behavior is a dynamic, fun, and rewarding place to work that offers superior growth and leadership opportunities in a supportive, engaging environment. We have a unique and collaborative culture that is driven by our diverse team of professionals and our core values of Serving Others, Treatment Excellence, All One Ally, Resourceful in Finding Solutions, and Striving to Grow. We are looking for someone to help us provide the best possible service to our clients.
Why This Internship Exists:
We believe great companies are built from the ground up, and that is how we intend to build out our leadership team. We are not going to scale this business by buying our operators and executives on the open market. The talent does not exist at the volume we need, and even when it does it has been shaped by other companies with different standards. We need to build our own bench, and we would rather find and partner those people early.
The program has two focuses. First, you learn the business from the inside through rotations across Ally's business functions. Second, you own one project tied to a live business initiative, with a defined scope, an executive sponsor, and output we expect to make its way into production.
This is not a watch from the sidelines internship. It is not a summer of shadowing that ends in a deck nobody uses. It is a role for someone with a do-whatever-is-necessary mindset. If the best way to win is to build the tracker, run the analysis, map the workflow, fix the handoff, sit with operators, draft the communications, and drive implementation, you will do that. Ally wants leaders who run toward the problems, not away.
We hold MBA interns to a senior standard. You should expect to be treated like a contributor from the start, and to be given more than you think you can handle, supported through it, and expected to deliver.
How the Summer Works:
Weeks 1 to 4: Learn the business
- Time in centers. You will work with the Operations Managers to learn how centers operate, shadow BCBAs and therapists, coordinate with the back office teams for authorizations and compliance, and help build the schedule.
- Rotations across corporate functions: Enrollment, Sales and Marketing, Talent Acquisition and HR, Insurance and Revenue Cycle, Clinical Quality, Finance, and Operations.
- Structured learning on ABA, Speech, OT and Psychology service delivery, client outcomes, payor and authorization mechanics, clinical workflows, family experience, and unit economics.
- Scoping sessions with your executive sponsor to sharpen your project into a clear problem, a set of owners, a timeline, and success metrics.
Weeks 5 to 9: Own the project
- You own one initiative end to end. You do the analysis, build the thing, work with the operators who have to live with it, and drive it into use.
- Weekly working sessions with your executive sponsor. Regular time with the CEO and functional leaders.
- You are expected to move quickly with imperfect information while maintaining rigor and integrity, and to escalate with a recommendation rather than a question.
- Midpoint review at roughly week 7, where we look hard at progress, adjust scope if the business has changed, and give you direct feedback.
Week 10: Land it
- Present results to the CEO and the leadership team. We want the recommendation, the trade offs, the numbers, and what you would do next.
- Hand off cleanly. A documented process, a working dashboard, a trained owner, whatever it takes for the work to keep running without you.
- Return offer decision.
Example Projects:
Projects are assigned based on where the business needs help and where your background gives you an edge. Recent and likely examples include:
- Patient journey and time to start: intake funnel, parent touch-points, handoffs, authorization bottlenecks, client conversion.
- Center operations optimization: scheduling utilization, staffing ramps, clinical supervision leverage, standardized clinical processes.
- Payor and revenue cycle performance: authorization cycle time, denials reduction, process redesign, support for contract negotiations.
- Market expansion readiness: market selection and sizing, site selection, ramp plans, launch scorecards.
- Referral growth: partnership strategy, local activation, conversion tied to available capacity.
- Service line pilots: business case, pilot design, pro-forma modeling, measurement, and a scale or kill recommendation.
- Clinical quality and outcomes: improvements to quality assurance process, standardized care delivery across centers and clinicians, outcomes measurement reporting and analysis.
- AI and automation: identify the workflows worth automating, build or deploy the tool, measure what it actually saved.
What Success Looks Like:
- Your project shipped, with measurable business impact in growth, access, quality, or economics, and it is still running after you leave.
- You can walk into any Ally center and read it. You know what good looks like, where the leverage is, and what the operator in that seat is dealing with.
- Operators and center leaders trust you. You earned that by being useful to them, not by being assigned to them.
- We know whether we want you back, and you know whether you want to come back.
The Return Offer:
Interns who perform receive an offer into one of two roles:
- Chief of Staff (CXO). You are staffed on the company's highest-impact initiatives, often ambiguous, cross-functional, and urgent. You work closely with the executive team, report to an executive sponsor, and earn increasing ownership quickly.
- Sandy Spring Leadership Development Program (LDP). A two to three year operating apprenticeship that takes you from learning how a center runs, to running one with full P&L accountability, to a regional leadership role.
Who Thrives Here:
- You have a high-ownership, low-ego mindset and no task is below you.
- You are energized by ambiguity and you can create structure from scratch.
- You can zoom from strategy to operations to execution without losing momentum.
- You are direct, collaborative, persistent, and able to influence without authority.
- You take feedback seriously and you give it directly.
- You are compassionate and have a high EQ. We work with families who have children with developmental delays, and the family experience is part of every problem we solve.
- You hold a high bar for ethics and quality in a healthcare setting.
- You want to lead a business, not just analyze one.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Currently enrolled in a full-time MBA program and returning to school following the internship.
- 3+ years of pre-MBA experience in operations, consulting, banking, healthcare, military leadership, program leadership, or another high-growth operating environment, with a track record of measurable outcomes.
- Demonstrated leadership of people or projects with real stakes.
- Strong analytical ability. Fluency in Sheets and Excel. Comfort reading a P&L. Comfort with dashboards and BI tools is a plus.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, and the ability to drive alignment across stakeholders who do not report to you.
- Willingness to be physically present in Tysons and in centers, and to travel.
- Must be able to pass federal, state, and county background checks.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience in multi-site healthcare services, ABA, behavioral health, pediatrics, or adjacent fields.
- Familiarity with payor dynamics, authorizations, and revenue cycle.
- Prior ownership of a unit, team, store, branch, or other front line P&L.
- Experience with technology implementation, process automation, or service operations improvement.
- Experience supporting rapid expansion or building operating cadence such as OKRs and QBRs.
- A clear interest in an operating career after school. We are looking for people who want to run something, not people looking for one more rotation.
Growth and Development:
We invest in interns the same way we invest in our leaders. Over the summer you will get:
- A formal executive sponsor from the leadership team who owns your development, not just your project.
- A peer mentor who is a current Regional Director or CXO.
- Direct exposure to the CEO and executive team decision-making.
- Real ownership of an initiative that shapes the company's trajectory.
- Direct, frequent feedback, including a midpoint review and a final review.
Our goal is to accelerate your growth curve by placing you in an outsized role with meaningful responsibility, surround you with the people and feedback you need to grow, and help you earn a path into broader leadership at Ally.
What We Offer When Joining Our Team:
- Internship compensation of $2,300 to $2,800 per week depending on experience.
- Housing and relocation stipend of $5,000 for interns relocating to the DC metro area for the summer.
- Return offer consideration into the Chief of Staff (CXO) or Sandy Spring (LDP) roles, with a decision before you return to school.
- Company-sponsored DashPass.
- Paid company holidays that fall during the internship.
- Executive sponsorship, formal mentorship, and a structured curriculum on center operations, payor and revenue cycle mechanics, people leadership, financial management, and clinical quality.
Note: This position is NOT eligible for Visa sponsorship.
Ally Behavior is an equal opportunity employer. In compliance with Federal and State Equal Opportunity Laws, qualified applicants are considered for all positions applied for without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, veteran status or any other legally protected status. Your personal information will be used for recruitment purposes only and handled in accordance with applicable privacy laws.
Ally Behavior is a full-time, center-based, early intervention Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy program, serving children with autism ranging from 18 months to 6 years of age. Our mission is to deliver the highest quality therapy to help our early learners reach their potential to communicate, improve social skills, and prepare for academic success. The children we serve are at the heart of everything we do and we are passionate about our commitment to having a meaningful impact in the lives of our children and their families.
MBA Summer Internship Job Description:
A ten week summer internship for MBA students who want to run businesses. It is the front door to our Chief of Staff (CXO) and Sandy Spring Operations Leadership Development Program (LDP) roles.
Location: Tysons, VA. In person, with travel to Ally centers across Maryland, Virginia, and the DC area.
Reports to: An executive sponsor on the leadership team, with direct exposure to the CEO.
Dates: Ten weeks, June through August. Some flexibility on start and end dates.
Please include a cover letter so we can get to know you better and understand why you believe you will be a good fit for our team! Applications submitted without a cover letter will not be considered.
About Ally Behavior Centers:
Ally Behavior is a fast-growing autism therapy company, built around exceptional clinical quality and an unmatched family experience. We have grown at roughly 70% CAGR over the last four years and we are building toward our next chapter: 10x'ing our center footprint over the next five years.
Scaling something this important requires more than plans; it requires leaders who can translate strategy into execution, build durable operating systems, and do the hard, unglamorous work to drive outcomes for kids and families.
This company has been built by investing in high-potential people earlier in their career and giving them meaningful responsibility as the business scales. Many of our leaders have grown into their roles by taking ownership of hard problems, delivering impact, and earning expanded scope over time. This internship is how we start that relationship earlier.
Overall, Ally Behavior is a dynamic, fun, and rewarding place to work that offers superior growth and leadership opportunities in a supportive, engaging environment. We have a unique and collaborative culture that is driven by our diverse team of professionals and our core values of Serving Others, Treatment Excellence, All One Ally, Resourceful in Finding Solutions, and Striving to Grow. We are looking for someone to help us provide the best possible service to our clients.
Why This Internship Exists:
We believe great companies are built from the ground up, and that is how we intend to build out our leadership team. We are not going to scale this business by buying our operators and executives on the open market. The talent does not exist at the volume we need, and even when it does it has been shaped by other companies with different standards. We need to build our own bench, and we would rather find and partner those people early.
The program has two focuses. First, you learn the business from the inside through rotations across Ally's business functions. Second, you own one project tied to a live business initiative, with a defined scope, an executive sponsor, and output we expect to make its way into production.
This is not a watch from the sidelines internship. It is not a summer of shadowing that ends in a deck nobody uses. It is a role for someone with a do-whatever-is-necessary mindset. If the best way to win is to build the tracker, run the analysis, map the workflow, fix the handoff, sit with operators, draft the communications, and drive implementation, you will do that. Ally wants leaders who run toward the problems, not away.
We hold MBA interns to a senior standard. You should expect to be treated like a contributor from the start, and to be given more than you think you can handle, supported through it, and expected to deliver.
How the Summer Works:
Weeks 1 to 4: Learn the business
- Time in centers. You will work with the Operations Managers to learn how centers operate, shadow BCBAs and therapists, coordinate with the back office teams for authorizations and compliance, and help build the schedule.
- Rotations across corporate functions: Enrollment, Sales and Marketing, Talent Acquisition and HR, Insurance and Revenue Cycle, Clinical Quality, Finance, and Operations.
- Structured learning on ABA, Speech, OT and Psychology service delivery, client outcomes, payor and authorization mechanics, clinical workflows, family experience, and unit economics.
- Scoping sessions with your executive sponsor to sharpen your project into a clear problem, a set of owners, a timeline, and success metrics.
Weeks 5 to 9: Own the project
- You own one initiative end to end. You do the analysis, build the thing, work with the operators who have to live with it, and drive it into use.
- Weekly working sessions with your executive sponsor. Regular time with the CEO and functional leaders.
- You are expected to move quickly with imperfect information while maintaining rigor and integrity, and to escalate with a recommendation rather than a question.
- Midpoint review at roughly week 7, where we look hard at progress, adjust scope if the business has changed, and give you direct feedback.
Week 10: Land it
- Present results to the CEO and the leadership team. We want the recommendation, the trade offs, the numbers, and what you would do next.
- Hand off cleanly. A documented process, a working dashboard, a trained owner, whatever it takes for the work to keep running without you.
- Return offer decision.
Example Projects:
Projects are assigned based on where the business needs help and where your background gives you an edge. Recent and likely examples include:
- Patient journey and time to start: intake funnel, parent touch-points, handoffs, authorization bottlenecks, client conversion.
- Center operations optimization: scheduling utilization, staffing ramps, clinical supervision leverage, standardized clinical processes.
- Payor and revenue cycle performance: authorization cycle time, denials reduction, process redesign, support for contract negotiations.
- Market expansion readiness: market selection and sizing, site selection, ramp plans, launch scorecards.
- Referral growth: partnership strategy, local activation, conversion tied to available capacity.
- Service line pilots: business case, pilot design, pro-forma modeling, measurement, and a scale or kill recommendation.
- Clinical quality and outcomes: improvements to quality assurance process, standardized care delivery across centers and clinicians, outcomes measurement reporting and analysis.
- AI and automation: identify the workflows worth automating, build or deploy the tool, measure what it actually saved.
What Success Looks Like:
- Your project shipped, with measurable business impact in growth, access, quality, or economics, and it is still running after you leave.
- You can walk into any Ally center and read it. You know what good looks like, where the leverage is, and what the operator in that seat is dealing with.
- Operators and center leaders trust you. You earned that by being useful to them, not by being assigned to them.
- We know whether we want you back, and you know whether you want to come back.
The Return Offer:
Interns who perform receive an offer into one of two roles:
- Chief of Staff (CXO). You are staffed on the company's highest-impact initiatives, often ambiguous, cross-functional, and urgent. You work closely with the executive team, report to an executive sponsor, and earn increasing ownership quickly.
- Sandy Spring Leadership Development Program (LDP). A two to three year operating apprenticeship that takes you from learning how a center runs, to running one with full P&L accountability, to a regional leadership role.
Who Thrives Here:
- You have a high-ownership, low-ego mindset and no task is below you.
- You are energized by ambiguity and you can create structure from scratch.
- You can zoom from strategy to operations to execution without losing momentum.
- You are direct, collaborative, persistent, and able to influence without authority.
- You take feedback seriously and you give it directly.
- You are compassionate and have a high EQ. We work with families who have children with developmental delays, and the family experience is part of every problem we solve.
- You hold a high bar for ethics and quality in a healthcare setting.
- You want to lead a business, not just analyze one.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Currently enrolled in a full-time MBA program and returning to school following the internship.
- 3+ years of pre-MBA experience in operations, consulting, banking, healthcare, military leadership, program leadership, or another high-growth operating environment, with a track record of measurable outcomes.
- Demonstrated leadership of people or projects with real stakes.
- Strong analytical ability. Fluency in Sheets and Excel. Comfort reading a P&L. Comfort with dashboards and BI tools is a plus.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, and the ability to drive alignment across stakeholders who do not report to you.
- Willingness to be physically present in Tysons and in centers, and to travel.
- Must be able to pass federal, state, and county background checks.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience in multi-site healthcare services, ABA, behavioral health, pediatrics, or adjacent fields.
- Familiarity with payor dynamics, authorizations, and revenue cycle.
- Prior ownership of a unit, team, store, branch, or other front line P&L.
- Experience with technology implementation, process automation, or service operations improvement.
- Experience supporting rapid expansion or building operating cadence such as OKRs and QBRs.
- A clear interest in an operating career after school. We are looking for people who want to run something, not people looking for one more rotation.
Growth and Development:
We invest in interns the same way we invest in our leaders. Over the summer you will get:
- A formal executive sponsor from the leadership team who owns your development, not just your project.
- A peer mentor who is a current Regional Director or CXO.
- Direct exposure to the CEO and executive team decision-making.
- Real ownership of an initiative that shapes the company's trajectory.
- Direct, frequent feedback, including a midpoint review and a final review.
Our goal is to accelerate your growth curve by placing you in an outsized role with meaningful responsibility, surround you with the people and feedback you need to grow, and help you earn a path into broader leadership at Ally.
What We Offer When Joining Our Team:
- Internship compensation of $2,300 to $2,800 per week depending on experience.
- Housing and relocation stipend of $5,000 for interns relocating to the DC metro area for the summer.
- Return offer consideration into the Chief of Staff (CXO) or Sandy Spring (LDP) roles, with a decision before you return to school.
- Company-sponsored DashPass.
- Paid company holidays that fall during the internship.
- Executive sponsorship, formal mentorship, and a structured curriculum on center operations, payor and revenue cycle mechanics, people leadership, financial management, and clinical quality.
Note: This position is NOT eligible for Visa sponsorship.
Ally Behavior is an equal opportunity employer. In compliance with Federal and State Equal Opportunity Laws, qualified applicants are considered for all positions applied for without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, veteran status or any other legally protected status. Your personal information will be used for recruitment purposes only and handled in accordance with applicable privacy laws.
Strategy Operations Manager Internship Market
Who's Hiring
- TikTok11
- NEW YORK STATE HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY2
- CECP1C
- Altria1
- ABF Freight1
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
Tips for Your Strategy Operations Manager Internship Search
Apply in the fall for summer roles
Large employers open strategy operations manager internship recruiting the preceding fall, with some deadlines landing months before the program starts. Smaller companies and co-op programs post closer to their start dates, so openings appear year-round. Check listings consistently rather than waiting for a single hiring season.
Build a project portfolio before you apply
Hiring teams evaluating strategy operations manager intern candidates expect limited work history and look for documented projects instead. Build two or three complete examples that show your process, the tools you used, and the outcome you delivered, case studies, process-improvement analyses, or written recommendations with clear results are the artifacts that give recruiters something to assess.
Work your campus network and apply directly at the same time
Campus career fairs surface structured programs tied to your university, and professors or career center staff often know which employers recruit from your school before roles post publicly. Applying directly to companies running smaller cohorts alongside campus activity widens the pool you reach and increases your chances of landing a strategy operations manager internship.
Practice the actual intern interview format out loud
Strategy operations manager intern screens typically involve case conversations, process-design questions, or structured analytical exercises. Practice walking through your reasoning out loud before you apply, interviewers weigh how you think through a problem as much as the answer you land on, so talking through your approach is a skill worth building deliberately.
Target structured rotational and cohort programs early
Larger employers often run rotational or cohort-based strategy operations programs built to train people new to the field, placing interns across strategy, planning, and operations functions in a single summer. These programs recruit early in the fall cycle and fill fast. Identify the ones that fit your goals and apply in the first wave rather than waiting.
Set your work-type filter before you start
On-site roles are 71% of the strategy operations manager internships listed here. Decide what you can realistically commit to before you search, then filter by location and work type on Migrate Mate so you are spending time on roles you can actually accept rather than sorting through ones you cannot.
Strategy Operations Manager Internships: Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a strategy operations manager internship?
Lead with coursework, personal projects, and a portfolio rather than work history, hiring teams expect limited experience at the intern level. For strategy operations manager candidates, a documented case study or process-improvement analysis gives recruiters something concrete to assess. Pair direct applications with campus career fairs, where recruiters often move faster for students they meet in person.
Can a strategy operations manager internship turn into a full-time job?
Many employers extend return offers to strong interns, but conversion is never guaranteed. For strategy operations manager interns, what drives it is performance on real project work, whether the team has open headcount at offer time, and how early you signal your interest. Position for a return offer by delivering results, but keep applying to other roles so you are not counting on one outcome.
When should I apply for strategy operations manager internships?
Earlier than most candidates expect. Large employers open their summer internship recruiting the preceding fall, so deadlines can pass months before the program starts. Smaller companies and co-op programs post closer to their actual start dates, which means openings appear year-round. Check regularly so you do not miss a wave.
Are strategy operations manager internships paid?
Most professional strategy operations manager internships in the United States are paid. Compensation varies by company size, industry, and location, and listings show it where the employer chooses to disclose it. Unpaid internships exist but are far less common at established organizations in this field.
What should a strategy operations manager internship resume include?
Lead with projects, not work history: two or three complete, documented projects that show the tools you used and the outcome you delivered. For strategy operations manager candidates, role-specific proof includes published analyses, process maps, case studies, or written recommendations with measurable results. Add relevant coursework, keep everything to one page, and link to any work that is publicly viewable.
Are there remote strategy operations manager internships?
Yes. Remote and hybrid roles make up 29% of the strategy operations manager internship listings here, with the rest on-site. Remote cohorts fill fast, so apply early and filter by work type to see them before they close.
What is a rotational operations internship program for strategy operations manager candidates?
Some larger employers run structured rotational internship programs that place interns across two or three business units during a single summer, giving exposure to strategy, planning, and operations functions in sequence. These programs are designed for people new to the field, recruit early in the fall cycle, and are competitive. Identify the ones that align with your interests and apply in the first wave.
Can international students get strategy operations manager internships?
Yes. F-1 students can intern through CPT while enrolled or through OPT work authorization after finishing a degree, and the employer does not have to file anything for either, so many companies are open to international interns. Confirm your eligibility and timing with your university's international student office before accepting an offer.
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