Kimberly Poniatowicz
Kimberly is a Manager of Industrial Engineering at Disney where she leads an analytics team to improve park experiences.
IOE-STAGE SITE
Education
- Indiana University, MBA, 2020
- University of Michigan, BSE Industrial and Operations Engineering, 2012
Career summary
When Kimberly started at Disney she first worked on a labor strategy team, ensuring that they had the right number of cast members, in the right place, at the right time, to meet the guests’ needs every day. She worked on labor strategy efforts with teams in California at Disneyland and with partners at the Shanghai Disneyland Resort.
Q&A
What excites you about your career?
It is an exciting environment to work in because there is always something new to learn and always new challenges that need industrial engineering skillsets.
Can you reflect on your time at U-M?
I use skills every day that I learned from my U-M IOE classes, especially statistics, optimization, simulation, and data processing. We apply engineering skills to projects and work collaboratively with partners across the organization to inform business decisions.
What were your favorite student orgs?
I was a member of the Michigan Marching Band and enjoyed my time performing at football games. It also offered me leadership experience that I have been able to draw on in my career.
What is your advice to students?
Seek out internships and professional work experience while you are a student. An internship is a great way to gain experience and to make you a better candidate for a full-time position upon graduation. But it is also a great way to learn what type of work you like to do, what type of company you might want to work for, and what roles might be a good fit for you after graduation.
While in college I had a chance to work with several different companies on internships – General Motors, Eli Lilly, and Walt Disney World. These internships were a great way to see how my coursework applied to real work environments. Each internship also allowed me to explore a different type of work: manufacturing at GM, distribution warehousing at Eli Lilly, and a service-driven environment at Disney.