MBA Intern (Paid) - Strategy, Business Development, & Ops | Fall 2026

Karp Strategies is a community-driven urban strategy consultancy seeking an MBA Intern to provide Chief of Staff-style support across strategic and operational priorities. The role involves managing business development, market intelligence, and marketing communications while contributing to data infrastructure and strategic planning.

What you'll do:

• Serve as a key partner to support our Marketing & BD Associate and senior leadership on active business development pursuits - supporting outreach, proposal development, and relationship tracking across priority sectors
• Conduct deep market and landscape research to identify new client opportunities, emerging sectors, and competitive dynamics; translate findings into actionable BD strategy
• Support development of go-to-market plans for targeted practice areas, including state-level landscape research, stakeholder mapping, and opportunity prioritization
• Assist in preparing proposals, presentations, and materials for prospective client engagements
• Help maintain, organize, and improve business development data, including pipelines and tracking systems, with an eye toward data quality and actionable reporting
• Identify high-impact content and marketing pieces, including thought leadership, project spotlights, and market-facing narratives that reflect the firm's voice and values
• Support preparation of materials for conferences, events, and speaking engagements
• Collaborate with leadership and our Marketing & BD Associate on external-facing communications and brand-building initiatives
• Support the design and build-out of data infrastructure and reporting systems that bring our pipeline, marketing, and performance data to life - turning data points into dashboards, reports, and insights that drive decision-making, identifying trends, and preparing leadership-ready summaries
• Explore and implement AI tools to improve firm-wide efficiency and collaboration – both in internal workflows and, where appropriate, within client-facing work – while maintaining client confidentiality
• Support cross-functional special projects at the direction of senior leadership
• Assist with strategic planning processes, including tracking and analyzing key KPIs and preparing supporting materials for leadership meetings and retreats

What they're looking for:

• Currently enrolled in an MBA program, with coursework or experience in strategy, business development, marketing, consulting, operations, or a related field
• Genuine interest in urban issues, community economic development, and/or social impact consulting
• Strong analytical and research skills, including experience with data analysis and reporting; able to synthesize information and communicate it clearly
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfortable drafting polished, professional materials
• Fluency or comfort leveraging AI platforms (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini) to enhance research, writing, and workflow efficiency
• Entrepreneurial mindset: proactive, adaptable, and comfortable with ambiguity
• Able to work independently while remaining collaborative - comfortable managing through others and coordinating across teams without direct line authority
• Able to maintain strict confidentiality when handling sensitive firm or client information
• Proficiency in Google Suite and Microsoft Office
• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple work streams simultaneously
• Familiarity with CRM tools or project management platforms is a plus