Intern - Operations Performance (Summer 2026)
At United, we offer internships, co-ops, and full-time opportunities for early career professionals. In any role, you’re a key member of our team, contributing to real projects that help move the business forward while gaining hands-on experience, growing your professional skill set, and connecting with industry leaders. You’ll also have a chance to build community through our employee-run Business Resource Groups, participate in industry conferences, and enjoy unlimited standby travel anywhere we fly.
The Operations Strategy & Analytics team collaborates with cross-functional teams such as Tech Ops, Network Operations and Network Planning to design, develop and maintain predictive models that drive actionable insights and optimize various aspects of our airline operations with an emphasis on Tech Ops performance.
Key Responsibilities:
Intern responsibilities for Operations Strategy & Analytics include:
- Engage with domain experts to understand business challenges, identify data-driven opportunities, and enhance decision-making and operational efficiency in the intersection of Tech Ops and NOC business process.
- Conduct data mining, data cleaning, and feature engineering to ensure high-quality datasets for analysis and modeling, in order to reduce unplanned out of service aircraft or improve throughput or mitigate risk for Tech Ops operation.
- Develop state-of-the-art models (e.g. machine learning, statistics or optimization) models and advanced analytics solutions to create actionable business insights for better future operational outcomes to enable data-driven decision making within demand, supply and buffers as it relates to Tech Ops performance
- Effectively communicate complex data insights and model results to non-technical partners in a clear and concise manner.
- Stay current with industry trends, emerging technologies, and standard processes in data science and machine learning to ensure the continuous improvement of our analytics capabilities.
What’s needed to succeed (Minimum Qualifications):
- Applicant must be a current undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor's degree in data science, computer science, mathematics, statistics, engineering or a related quantitative field
- 2+ years of experience or schooling in data science, machine learning, optimization, statistics or a related field
- 1+ years designing and programming/coding data structures for large-scale computer models
- Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills
- Coursework or work experience with statistics, machine learning, optimization, big data analytics and/or forecasting techniques
- Ability to work with cross functional groups, with strong relationship building skills
- Demonstrated expertise in designing, developing, and deploying machine learning models or advanced analytics solutions with business results.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to convey complex concepts to non-technical partners.
- Strong interpersonal, verbal and presentation skills with a focus on collaboration
- Experience using SQL, Python or R preferred
- Ability to handle simultaneous projects and adapt to a fast-paced, changing environment
What’s needed to succeed (Preferred Qualifications):
- Working toward a master’s degree or higher
- Green Belt certification and demonstrated results through utilization of DMAIC
- Prior experience in the aviation industry or a strong understanding of airline operations is a plus
- Knowledge of United/industry data sources
- Structured programming for large-scale computer models
- Familiarity with Palantir Foundry
- Field experience working with frontline workers