Operational Improvement MBA Internship – Summer 2025

Whole Foods Market






Job Description


Our mission at Whole Foods Market is to nourish people and the planet, but also- future talent. We are excited to offer our 2025 Summer Internship Program to purpose-driven students seeking to make a difference in their work and in their community. Our internship program is based in Austin, Texas, down the street from our original Whole Foods Market store. Our interns don’t get us coffee; instead, they enjoy free coffee and tea while working on meaningful projects that impact our internal and external stakeholders.


About the Team: 

The Operational Improvement Team is a group of experienced problem solvers pursuing operational efficiencies and strategic initiatives at WFM. Our work directly supports operational leadership’s objectives and directly targets company goals to connect operational strategy to the rest of the organization. We play a leading role in ensuring stakeholder alignment and engagement, deliver value to the teams we partner with, and are invited to participate in their problem-solving endeavors.  


Intern Responsibilities May Include:  

  • Perform discovery work to identify operational inconsistencies across stores/teams  
  • Perform detailed root cause analysis on operational improvement projects  
  • Work with cross-functional teams to create pilot plans and SOPs for implementation  
  • Create communication and training plans for assigned initiatives  
  • Develop PowerPoint decks, write whitepapers, and deliver presentations to members of senior leadership  


You Will Bring:   

  • Familiarity with Lean Six Sigma and/or organizational change management methodologies  
  • Familiarity with data solutions such as SQL, Tableau, and Alteryx is a plus, not required  
  • Ability to work with others, direct others and work cooperatively to ensure completion of projects 
  • Communicates structured information in a clear, concise, and organized fashion 
  • Experience with analyzing reporting and visualizing data to identify issues, trends, or exceptions to drive improvement of results and find solutions  
  • Consulting experience preferred 


Education & Experience:  

  • Current 1st year MBA student preferred
  • Business or Operations Management backgroundpreferred 


Internship Program Details: 


Our Summer 2025 Internships are paid for 10-weeks, full-time (40 hours/week) between June 2, 2025-August 8, 2025. The internships will be based in Austin, Texas and are not open to remote candidates at this time. 


Program Highlights:  

  • Weekly Summer Event Series: Weekly events for interns to connect with one another and get immersed in the Whole Foods Market culture. Previous events have included distribution center tours, cheese tastings, volunteering at the Central Texas Food Bank, supplier visits, women in leadership panel and more! 
  • Intern Buddy: Opportunity to be paired with a Whole Foods Market team member outside of our team that can be a go to resource during your summer. 
  • Team Member Coffee Chats: Network 1:1 with Whole Foods Market team members in your field or area of interest for a 20 – 30-minute coffee chat. 
  • Internship Expo: End of internship presentations where you can share what projects you worked on during the summer with the entire company! 


Application Review: Our internship applications will be open in November 2024. We will review applications on a rolling basis so next steps and interviews may not be communicated until December 2024. 


At Whole Foods Market, we provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all Team Members and candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, marital status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Whole Foods Market hires and promotes individuals solely based on qualifications for the position to be filled and business needs.Whole Foods Market works with job sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter to promote opportunities at our company. Please be aware that other career sites may not be accurate or up to date and may even be fraudulent. We encourage and recommend all candidates to apply via our site.

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