Internship: Strategy & Operations Optimization

This internship within Vanderlande’s Global Parcel team focuses on optimizing global team topologies, streamlining SAFe processes for faster delivery, and building a reliable, prioritized project roadmap.

Description of assignment

Our Global Parcel team at Vanderlande develops highly complex, automated material handling systems. Right now, we face a multi-layered organizational puzzle: we are struggling with unpredictable system reliability during project handovers, the lack of a clear, unified program roadmap, and team topologies that may not be the most effective for our goals. Additionally, while we follow the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) for alignment, it is currently not increasing our execution speed.

Research question: “How can our department apply operations research, organizational data analytics, and capacity modeling to optimize our global team topologies, streamline SAFe processes for faster delivery speed, and build a reliable, prioritized project roadmap?”

Department description

Linesorters is a Technology & R&D department within Vanderlande that develops innovative sortation solutions for parcel and distribution customers worldwide. With a multidisciplinary team of engineers, architects, and specialists, Linesorters combines technical expertise and customer focus to create reliable, flexible, and future-ready solutions that improve operational performance and efficiency.

Tasks/responsibilities

• Map our ecosystem by gathering data on global team competencies, cross-border time zone handovers, SAFe sprint velocities, and system reliability metrics.
• Analyze team topologies to mathematically evaluate if our current organizational structures and agile processes are creating unnecessary bottlenecks.
• Build smart optimization models using Constraints-Based Scheduling or Linear Programming to simulate how changing team structures or roadmap priorities impacts delivery speed.
• Design a prototype tool or interactive dashboard that lets leadership simulate "what-if" scenarios regarding team reorganization, SAFe process adjustments, and roadmap changes.
• Write an actionable final report that explains your mathematical approach, your findings, and clear, practical recommendations for our global leadership team.

Your profile

• Good hands-on experience with Python.
• Confident using SQL to extract data and standard tools like Power BI or Tableau to build clean, easy-to-read dashboards.
• You have a strong analytical mindset and are passionate about solving complex operational challenges using optimization, simulation, and data-driven decision-making.
• A basic understanding of, or curiosity about, Agile frameworks like SAFe and how team structures impact corporate speed.
• Fluent in both written and spoken English.
• Mandatory enrolment to a Dutch Education System and resident of The Netherlands.

What we offer

• A monthly internship allowance based on a 40-hour work week: Bachelor: €500 per month; Master: €550 per month.
• Full commuting allowance, including public transport, depending on whether you have access to free public transport or not.
• On-site health center with gym.
• Active employee communities and initiatives.
• Excellent company restaurant and barista coffee bar.