Mba strategy

At DICK’S Sporting Goods , we believe in how positively sports can change lives. On our team, everyone plays a critical role in creating confidence and excitement by personally equipping all athletes to achieve their dreams. We are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workforce, reflecting the communities we serve.

If you are ready to make a difference as part of the world’s greatest sports team, apply to join our team today!

Overview

2026 MBA Strategy Internship

Do you want a career with a forward-thinking Fortune 400 company that is focused on the future of Sport? A company committed to giving back to and increasing access in underserved communities? An organization willing to take calculated risks and explore new ventures to become the Best Sports Company in the World? If so, the DICK’S Sporting Goods (DSG) Strategy Internship might be for you. Join a cohort of MBA students from the top business schools in the country to work on pressing business issues and present your solutions to directly to Executive Leadership.

DSG’s MBA Strategy Interns work with and learn from the leaders who shape our mission, vision, and values. During the 10-week Summer experience, interns will be assigned a cross-functional, strategic project that is hand-selected by our Executive Leaders. At the conclusion of the summer, you will present your project directly to our Strategy leadership and several members of the Senior Executive team.

As a bonus to our program, you will have Q&A sessions with senior leaders, interact with some of the top brands in sports through your day-to-day work, and may take part in an Executive visit to a strategic store market. Interns also attend curated training sessions with key-members of the DSG team. These sessions are designed to help build your strategic toolkit and give you the opportunity to learn the retail and e-commerce business.

To support you throughout the Summer, we have built a strong support system of managers and mentors. For project guidance, you will be paired with a Senior Leader who will take on the role of Project Sponsor. For day-to-day management, you will report directly to one of our former MBA hires. Additionally, you will have weekly status-checks and coaching from both leaders in our Strategy Department and our Executive Development Program (rotational leadership development program post-MBA). This reporting structure will aid in transitioning you to the DSG team, the exploration of your career goals, and will provide opportunities to develop professional and social networks within the company and the retail industry.

The experiential learning you will receive enables you to rapidly become a contributing member of the team, while also focusing on your own personal development. If you join DSG, you will have the opportunity to be a part of an enthusiastic and supportive team culture, be challenged to make a meaningful difference in our business decisions, and get a peek behind the curtain of how a large company thinks about its growth strategies.

Intern Projects: It is difficult to predict projects in advance due to the dynamic nature of our business, but past analysis and work performed by MBA hires at DSG includes (titles have been anonymized):

Accelerating growth in new priority business category

It is critical to stay ahead of trends and maximize growth in new categories as they emerge. This project focused on identifying and prioritizing recommendations across product assortment, service offerings, etc. to ensure the business could thrive in a new high growth category. This project provided exposure to multiple functions including merchandising, store operations, strategy, and marketing. The recommendations from the work directly informed priority initiatives that different functional teams needed to pursue to take advantage of the new business growth.

Injecting organic and inorganic growth into existing core business category

DICK’S has many established business categories that require continuous review and innovation to ensure they stay relevant as consumer interests and expectations shift. This project focused on identifying opportunities to grow a key long-standing category. Once opportunity areas were identified (e.g., product assortment, services, athlete experience, M&A), the project then focused on defining specific actions that could be pursued to address the opportunity areas. To support the recommended actions, the EDP also had to complete quantitative analysis to rationalize investments vs. benefits (i.e., expected DSG sales and market share growth vs. total market growth). Finally, the recommendations had to be socialized and aligned on with merchandising, marketing, strategy, technology, and store operations leadership to inform strategic planning.

Benchmarking best practices and identifying improvement opportunities for a key strategic competency

An EDP was engaged to benchmark best practices for a key strategic competency that is critical to run a retail business. This included completing external expert research and interviewing internal experts on the topic. Once a clearer understanding of current performance and leading practices were identified, the EDP engaged senior leadership across functions to align on the most critical sub-competency gaps to address and the recommended actions to do so. This culminated in the definition of a strategic roadmap to guide investments and development efforts for the function that owned the competency.

In this program, DICK'S will provide you with the following:

• Ownership + Delivery of Projects – You will own a high-visibility project, focused on a key business initiative. Projects are approved by our President and CEO, Lauren Hobart and other key leaders.
• Leadership Development – We will help prepare you to lead, through experiences both curated and organic
• Career Exploration – You will work with and network across various functions including strategy, eComm, operations, technology, and merchandising
• Coaching and Support – You will regularly meet with our team of coaches and mentors to make sure you are learning as much as possible
  
  

What We Are Looking For

• A documented history of academic distinction
• 3-5 years of previous work experience in a dynamic environment (examples include but are not limited to consulting, strategy, finance, brand management, retail, etc.)
• Executive Presence
  • Demonstrated ability to work with all levels of the business from top to bottom
  • Composure with senior leadership team in one-on-one conversations
  • Experience influencing and presenting to senior leaders
• Demonstrated ability to analyze data, synthesize recommendations, and present your recommendations for next steps
• Passion for strategy, retail, sports, and/or innovation is a plus
• Comfort working in an evolving, forward-thinking environment
  
  

Additional Information

Program Dates : June 4, 2026 - Aug 13, 2026

Interviews: Phone Screens w/ MBA Recruiter will take place November & December 2024. Top candidates will be invited to interview. Interviews will be held: Round 1 – early to mid-Jan; Round 2 – mid Jan; Round 3 – late Jan to early Feb. Pittsburgh and DICK’S campus exploratory visit for offer holders: Early-mid February.

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at DSG’s Corporate Office. Currently, employees are working a hybrid model, in office Tues – Thurs and WFH Mon & Fri. Interns will follow this same model, though some exceptions may apply given the short-term nature of the internship.

Housing : Fully furnished housing is provided for interns who reside outside of the Pittsburgh-Metro area. We take care of all housing arrangements, financially and logistically.

Full-time opportunities in 2027: Interns will be evaluated for our rotational leadership program, the MBA Executive Development Program, after the end of the program for full-time positions to start in Sept. 2027. Our goal is to convert Interns into full-time members of this program.

Questions: [email protected] – Program Manager, University Relations

Video Links

Working at DICK'S Sporting Goods

DSG Investor Relations Site

Why Pittsburgh is Awesome

CHRO, Julie Lodge-Jarrett on Teammate Experience, July 2022

JJ Watt's Dream House: DICK'S House of Sport

75 for 75 Grant Recipient - Westinghouse Football