Designer: User Research Intern 2026

IntroductionAbout The TeamAs IBM Z Designers, you are part of a community of innovators, creators, and design thinkers. Our systems power the world’s most important industries, and our clients are the architects of the future. Transforming our business to deliver on that future is at the heart of our Design mission.

Role DescriptionAs an IBM Z Designer, your focus will be on meeting individual and team objectives, learning your craft, contributing to the design of a product and learning about IBM and IBM Design practices. Generally, your efforts will be concentrated around a single product in your business area, with guidance and feedback from a more senior designer or design leader. You will also contribute to the design community by supporting community activities, sharing, learning or maintaining a part of the community operation.

As designers, we focus on ensuring the experiences we create meet the needs of our customers and end users and strive for design excellence in our work. You will apply a user-centered perspective to your design work and advocate for the customer / end user in all interactions with your teammates and colleagues. At times you may also engage with customers or other users of the product in the design process.

Job DutiesYour role and responsibilitiesKey/Strategic Responsibilities
* Grow domain knowledge by learning the value proposition of your product, its market

position, the basics of its technologies and how it’s used by our customers.

* Develop enough domain fluency to contribute ideas that differentiate the solution in the

market.

* Attend and participate in design and product-oriented activities, such as stand-ups,

Town Halls, product demos or design critiques.

* Develop the ability to find and apply relevant industry references/trends.
* Identify improvement opportunities at the individual product level

Cross-Functional Responsibilities
* Attend client / sponsor user sessions; establish your own client relationships.
* Contribute to the design of a product by advocating for the user experience and value.
* Learn about the org structure and key stakeholders of your PM and dev teams
* Seek and provide feedback on outcomes to your entire team.
* Support advocacy of design thinking across the team.
* Communicate with other designers and your 3iab team about your project status.
* Attend and participate in design reviews and playbacks to share experience design and

related artifacts.

* Understand how your work fits into the department mission, strategy, and vision.

Functional Responsibilities

* Contribute towards delivery of project needs, such as research insights or user

experience deliverables, in alignment with timeline and roadmap milestones.

* Participate in concept ideation informed by an understanding of users, clients, and their

desired outcomes.

* Adapt work and processes according to guidance and direction from design leads.
* Strengthen your craft skills in your discipline through learning, mentorship, and

producing.

* Expand competencies across t-shape to better contribute to personal and team

outcomes.

* Acquire Enterprise Design Thinking fluency and infuse practices into work.
* Develop foundational knowledge in the technologies needed for your product/org, such

as AI.

* Develop entry-level knowledge of IBM Experience Standards.
* Participate in internal and external design community activities.
* Familiarity with accessibility guidelines and principles (e.g., WCAG)

Additional Discipline Specific ResponsibilitiesResearchSupport user research activities and customer interactions.

Contribute to research sessions/planning.

Design research plans (with oversight).

Lead research sessions.

Demonstrate the ability to ask effective questions.

Put customers and stakeholders at ease during session.

Synthesize research

Share and communicate research findings

Support storytelling around an on-going narrative leads will build for a hill

UXCollaborate with research to understand core problems being solved in design.

Execute and expand on established UX flows.

Create wireframes, user flows and prototypes with oversight from design lead.

Adjust designs based on formal and informal feedback

Create low and high-fidelity designs from approved concepts.

Support production of assets for use during usability testing.

Actively participate in EDT sessions.

Required technical and professional expertise
* Experience working on enterprise information technology (business to business), and enterprise technology personas or archetypes.
* Familiarity with IBM Z product stack

Preferred Technical And Professional ExperiencePreferred education: Pursuing a degree in Design, including Design & Technology, UX Design, Software Product & Interaction Design, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), UX Research, Information Experience Design, Game Design, Human Factors, Usability, or Ethnography, or a Software or Computer Systems Engineering degree with a minor in Design or completion of a certificate program in Design.