Summer Associate Internship (Decision Quality & Portfolio Signal Effectiveness)

Join our team as a Summer Associate to help strengthen how we make portfolio decisions’ turning operating model adoption into clearer decision inputs, sharper trade-offs, and more consistent follow-through. You’ll focus on a small set of high-impact measures and examples that help leaders see what’s working, what’s noisy, and what to improve next.

Building on the Lending Portfolio Management Operations (LPMO) operating model and Lending Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LLACE) intent, you'll help define a practical way to describe and observe decision effectiveness’ then pilot it with a limited number of teams/forums. You'll translate what you learn into clear, executive-ready artifacts for governance conversations and planning cycles.

Deliverables should include a draft Decision Quality Scorecard template, a short Decision Effectiveness field guide (prompts + examples), a pilot summary with what to keep/change, and a prioritized set of next-step recommendations (signals, forums, coaching focus, and/or tooling).

The Summer Associate Program is a 12-week internship program beginning in May 2027 and ending in August 2027. Students will work on impactful projects and meaningful work during their internship. To qualify for this position, applicants must be currently pursuing a degree from an accredited college or university and have an anticipated graduation date of December 2027 or later.

• Draft a practical Decision Quality Index (DQI) with a short set of observable measures (e.g., clarity of decisions, explicit trade-offs, rework/reopening, and time-to-decision once inputs are ready)

• Pilot the DQI on a small sample

• Create a lightweight signal-to-decision map for the pilot area, showing which signals are used, which are ignored, and where informal inputs override formal ones

• Run 1-2 constraint scenarios (stress tests) to capture where the operating model bends first and what mitigations would help

• Deliver a concise readout with recommendations, along with a repeatable template (scorecard + prompts) that teams can extend after the internship

• Perform other related duties as assigned

• Strong analytical thinking with the ability to translate ambiguous inputs into clear measures and insights

• Comfort working with senior stakeholders and facilitating structured conversations about decisions and trade-offs

• Ability to communicate crisply in writing (executive summaries, scorecards, and playbooks)

• Exposure to operating models, governance, portfolio management, Agile/Lean, or organizational change through coursework, internships, or project work

• Strong attention to detail and follow-through across multiple workstreams

Desired Qualifications

• Familiarity with KPI design, scorecards, dashboards, or performance measurement systems
• Experience with operating models, governance, portfolio management, Agile/Lean, or organizational change (academic or professional)
• Experience mapping decision flows or creating traceability from signals/inputs to outcomes
• Comfort running lightweight stress tests, scenario analysis, or pre-mortems

Additional Information

Hours:

• Monday – Friday, 8:00AM - 4:30 PM CT

Locations:

• 820 Follin Lane, Vienna, VA 22180
• 5550 Heritage Oaks Dr Pensacola, FL 32526
• 141 Security Dr. Winchester, VA 22602