Production & Operations Intern, Food-as-Medicine Startup

Reports to: Head of Operations

Location: On-site, Concord, CA. Hands-on, floor/production level role

Schedule: Full-time, 40 hours/week, 8 hours/day

Available Shifts: 6AM-2:30PM Tue-Sat or 2:30-11PM Wed-Sat

Compensation: Starts at $20/hour

Type: Paid Internship

Where Our Interns End Up

The last group of interns at Methodology became:

• A product manager at Unity.
• Founders of their own beverage company.
• Chefs at Michelin-starred restaurants.
• Our current Head of Operations.

These people had one thing in common when they started here: they were not the most experienced people in the room. They were the hungriest. You asked them to do something and you never had to ask twice. They were reliable. They learned the business, physical operations, its finances, inside out. We are looking for the next version of those people. If that is you, keep reading.

The Company

Methodology is not a typical meal delivery company. We are a precision nutrition company disguised as a food business.

For 11 years we have been building one of the most technically demanding food operations in the country. Over twenty thousand meals per week, every one chef-crafted and calorie-controlled, shipped nationwide in glass jars and bowls. No gluten. No dairy. No refined sugar. No seed oils. Every ingredient chosen for a reason. Every meal designed to drive a health outcome. We served as the food delivery partner for a Stanford Medicine clinical research study on dietary interventions. That is the level of scientific credibility behind our food. We trademarked Food as Medicine before the rest of the industry started using the phrase. We are about to enter the most aggressive growth phase in our history.

Here is what is happening right now:

• We are launching an AI-powered platform that matches food to individual biomarkers, turning a meal delivery service into a precision nutrition engine.
• We are raising capital through debt, not equity, to scale without giving up ownership because the business is profitable.
• We are redesigning our entire menu from the ground up with a focus on more effective meals that drive measurable health outcomes.
• We are automating our facility with AI-driven labor planning, production tracking, and logistics optimization tools built internally by our own team.

Why This Role Exists

This department's manager started at Methodology as an intern, with no operations experience. He had energy, curiosity, and he never had to be told anything twice. Today he is our Head of Operations, building AI-powered labor planning tools, managing a multi-million dollar logistics operation, and leading facility automation. He is one of the most important people at the company.

We need what he was in year one: hungry, physical, athletic, mission-driven, someone who will master every station on the floor and earn the trust of the team through pure execution.

This intern will not sit at a desk. They will portion meals. They will package orders. They will receive inventory. They will load trucks. The right hand person to the manager. And if they are exceptional, they will build a career here the same way our Head of Ops did, the same way many other interns did across other companies.

Floor First, Floor Always

You cannot improve a system you have not mastered with your own hands.

For the first six months, you will spend 100% of your time on the production floor. No spreadsheets. No process improvement proposals. Your only job is to become the single best operator in the building. Learn every station. Hit every spec. Earn the trust of every team lead.

After six months, the split shifts to 85% floor, 15% systems work. That ratio holds for the rest of the internship. The floor is not something you graduate out of. It is where your credibility lives. The 25% systems time is earned by being excellent on the floor, and it goes away if floor performance slips.

One of our early interns was the captain of his baseball team. There was another guy, a football player, who memorized the entire pick sheet, picked twice as fast as everyone else, and made zero mistakes across the entire year. These are the kinds of people who thrive here. Athletes. Competitors. People who treat a packout line like a game they want to win.

Floor Operations (85-100% of Your Time)

Portioning & Production

• Portion meals into glass jars and custom bento containers to exact weight and component specs. Meals typically have 5-6 components that must be weighed, layered, and presented to Methodology's visual and nutritional standards.
• Know what comes off the cook line. Catch quality issues before they reach the customer.
• Participate in weekly internal tasting sessions. You eat what the customer eats.

Order Packaging & Pack Out

• Package customer orders: pull correct meals, verify labels, place ice packs, seal boxes, stage for carrier pickup.
• Handle the full packaging chain: boxes, glass jars, lids, insulation, ice packs, shipping labels. Glass breaks if you are careless.
• Work peak packout shifts under hard shipping cutoffs. Speed matters, but accuracy matters more. A wrong meal in a box is a failed customer experience.

Receiving & Warehouse

• Run receiving: manifest inbound deliveries, count units against POs, inspect for damage, log inventory.
• Manage warehouse storage protocols: temperature zones, stacking rules for glass jars, pallet organization.
• Execute physical inventory counts and reconciliation.

Shipping & Delivery

• Support the order flow from Shipstation to FedEx pickup: cutoff times, zone allocation, carrier selection, pallet loading.
• Ideally serve as the backup delivery driver if needed. A valid driver's license and reliable vehicle would be required to complete this function.

Equipment & Facility

• Support equipment operation and maintenance: pallet wrapper, blast chiller, combi ovens, meat slicer.
• Help with facility projects: equipment moves, layout changes, seasonal logistics prep.

Systems Work (0-15%, Starting Month 7)

Earned through floor excellence. Your hands-on experience is what makes you credible here.

• Help maintain the AI-driven labor planning tool. Update KPI dashboards by sub-team.
• Compile shipment data for carrier rate negotiations. Support claims documentation.
• Test internal AI tools: labor dashboard, knowledge base, production tracking.
• Support P&L audit work and financial reporting. The COO will lead workshops when you are ready to tackle this work.
• Use Claude AI actively. Methodology is an AI-forward company.

Who You Are

We are looking for a very specific type of person. Not the most polished resume. Not the most impressive GPA. The person who is a barrel: you put anything in front of them and they run with it. You never have to ask twice.

• You are a barrel. You grab work and go and you do it extremely well. You do not need to be managed. You see what needs to happen and you make it happen.
• You are physical. You want to be on your feet, moving product, working with your hands.
• You are competitive. You inspire the people around you to be better by being better yourself.
• You care about the food, the customer, and doing the job right. You believe food can change people's health and you want to be part of proving it.
• You are fast. Not reckless. When the pace picks up, you get sharper, not sloppier.
• You are humble. You will pack boxes, mop floors, and deliver meals. You understand that is where operational knowledge lives and you do not consider any of it beneath you.
• You are ambitious. This is not a dead-end gig. You see this as a launchpad. Our Head of Operations started here as an intern. The trajectory is real if you earn it.
• You learn fast. The faster you absorb, the more valuable you become.
• You have high integrity. There is no room for shortcuts.
• You ideally have a valid driver's license and a reliable vehicle for backup delivery shifts. Not required.
• You are available 40 hours/week, 8 hours/day, on-site in Concord, CA.

What You Get

• Exposure across culinary, logistics, procurement, and tech. You will understand how an entire business operates, not just one department.
• A small team where you are visible to leadership from day one. This is not a Fortune 500 internship where you disappear into a cohort of 200. The founders know your name. Your work is noticed.
• You will learn how a real P&L works. Not from a textbook.
• Direct mentorship from our Head of Operations, who started in the exact role you are applying for. A real path to a full-time career. Not a promise. A track record. The people who started where you are starting built extraordinary careers from this floor.
• Exposure to executive-level operational thinking from the COO and co-founder, who walks the floor, eats the food, and has built this company from zero over the past decade.
• Methodology meals at HQ. You eat the food you help create. Employee discount on Methodology products.

Culture

• We are direct. Feedback is immediate and clear.
• We are first-principles minded. We do not copy what other companies do. We break problems down to their root causes, separate facts from assumptions, and build solutions from the ground up.
• We are accountable. You own your station, you own the output.
• We use AI. Every team member uses AI tools to work faster.
• We move at the speed of a startup with over a decade of operational depth behind us.
• We respect the floor. Leadership eats the meals you make. The people portioning and packing are the most important people in the building.

How to Apply

Send your resume and a short note (direct to the point, no fluff) on why you want this role at this company. Also answer at least 2 of these questions:

• Tell us about a time you did hard, unglamorous work and what it taught you.
• Tell us about something you competed in and what it felt like to push past your limit. We care way more about that than your GPA.
• Describe a time you noticed something was wrong that wasn't your responsibility to fix. Did you fix it anyway? What happened?

Open To All

No college degree required. Anyone with the right work ethic are encouraged to apply. We hire on character, reliability, and hunger.