Designer Spring Co-op 2027

International Business Machines Corporation; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 76,000 - 139,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

8 paid holidays

Paid sick time

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

IBM Software is seeking a Design Co‑Op to join our Product Excellence Office. This 16‑week, full‑time role focuses on service design and transformation initiatives that improve how IBM product teams learn, collaborate, and adopt new practices.

You’ll work with cross‑functional teams, gain exposure to enterprise design methods, and help shape experiences across onboarding, learning programs, coaching, and productivity tools.

Qualifications

• Actively enrolled in a Bachelor's degree program and returning to complete the degree after the co-op.
• Available to start full-time between December 2027 and August 2028.
• Available to work full-time (40 hours/week) at an IBM location for 16 weeks between Jan 19 - May 7.
• Co-op requires a full-time commitment; students should not be enrolled in concurrent coursework during the co-op term.

Responsibilities

• Support service design research to understand how product teams work today, where they encounter friction, and what would help them adopt new practices and tools.
• Synthesize interviews, observations, survey results, and usage data into clear themes, opportunities, and recommendations.
• Create journey maps, service blueprints, ecosystem maps, workflows, and other artifacts that make complex organizational experiences easier to understand.
• Help design and prototype enablement experiences across touchpoints such as onboarding, learning programs, coaching, playbooks, communications, templates, and productivity tools.
• Collaborate with product managers, designers, researchers, developers, educators, and business leaders across IBM Software.
• Participate in workshops and co‑creation sessions that align stakeholders around needs, priorities, and future‑state experiences.
• Contribute to reusable guidance and standards that help teams apply modern product practices consistently.
• Help define and track measures such as adoption, satisfaction, engagement, and productivity, then use the results to improve the service.
• Present work clearly, explain the rationale behind recommendations, and incorporate feedback from partners and users.

Skills

Portfolio or work samples

UI/UX fundamentals

Strong written, visual, and verbal

Education

High School Diploma/GED

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Figma

FigJam

Miro

Mural

Adobe Creative Suite

Job description

At IBM Software, we transform client challenges into solutions. Building the world’s leading AI-powered, cloud-native products that shape the future of business and society. Our legacy of innovation creates endless opportunities for IBMers to learn, grow, and make an impact on a global scale. Working in Software means joining a team fueled by curiosity and collaboration. You’ll work with diverse technologies, partners, and industries to design, develop, and deliver solutions that power digital transformation. With a culture that values innovation, growth, and continuous learning, IBM Software places you at the heart of IBM’s product and technology landscape. Here, you’ll have the tools and opportunities to advance your career while creating software that changes the world.

The Product Excellence Office is IBM Software's centralized enablement team. We help product teams adopt modern ways of working through education, coaching, best-practice guidance, and productivity tools that improve product outcomes.

Your role and responsibilities

This is a 16‑week Co‑Op position for actively enrolled undergraduate students who are interested in gaining hands‑on, practical experience in their field while contributing to real IBM projects. To be eligible, candidates must be currently enrolled at an accredited university and able to pause their coursework for the duration of the Co‑Op, as students may not be enrolled in classes while participating. This role requires full‑time availability (40 hours per week) during the Spring 2027 semester between Jan 19 - May 7. Eligible candidates should also be available to join IBM in a full‑time role between December 2027 and August 2028 upon successful completion of their degree.

We are looking for Design Co‑Op to join our team. As a PEO design Co‑Op, you will work on service design and transformation initiatives that improve how IBM Software product teams learn, collaborate, adopt new practices, and use productivity tools. With support from experienced team members, you will help understand employee needs, design connected experiences across multiple touchpoints, and evaluate whether those experiences are producing meaningful results.

What You’ll Do

• Support service design research to understand how product teams work today, where they encounter friction, and what would help them adopt new practices and tools.
• Synthesize interviews, observations, survey results, and usage data into clear themes, opportunities, and recommendations.
• Create journey maps, service blueprints, ecosystem maps, workflows, and other artifacts that make complex organizational experiences easier to understand.
• Help design and prototype enablement experiences across touchpoints such as onboarding, learning programs, coaching, playbooks, communications, templates, and productivity tools.
• Collaborate with product managers, designers, researchers, developers, educators, and business leaders across IBM Software.
• Participate in workshops and co‑creation sessions that align stakeholders around needs, priorities, and future‑state experiences.
• Contribute to reusable guidance and standards that help teams apply modern product practices consistently.
• Help define and track measures such as adoption, satisfaction, engagement, and productivity, then use the results to improve the service.
• Present work clearly, explain the rationale behind recommendations, and incorporate feedback from partners and users.

Required education

High School Diploma/GED

Preferred education

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Must be actively enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree program at the time of application and returning to complete the degree after the co‑op.
• Available to start full‑time between December 2027 and August 2028.
• Available to work full‑time (40 hours/week) at an IBM location for 16 weeks between Jan 19 - May 7.
• Co‑op requires a full‑time commitment; students should not be enrolled in concurrent coursework during the co‑op term.

(Guidelines — transferable skills are encouraged)

• A portfolio or work samples that demonstrate human‑centered design, systems thinking, research synthesis, service design methods, or UI/UX fundamentals. Academic and self‑directed projects are welcome.
• Experience with design and collaboration tools like Figma, FigJam, Miro, or Mural, Adobe Creative Suite, etc.
• Ability to organize qualitative and quantitative information and communicate clear findings.
• Strong written, visual, and verbal communication skills.
• Curiosity about how people, processes, technology, and organizational structures shape an experience.
• Ability to collaborate across disciplines, manage work responsibly, and learn from feedback.

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Experience planning or supporting, interviews, workshops, usability studies, events, or surveys.
• Familiarity with data visualization, analytics, or methods for measuring adoption and outcomes.
• Interest in enterprise transformation, product operations, AI‑enabled workflows, or modern product development practices.
• Understanding of accessibility and inclusive design.

Location Flexibility: By applying to this requisition, you acknowledge and agree to be considered for any of the listed locations associated with this position and are willing to work at the location where you are ultimately assigned.

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Software infuses core business operations with intelligence—from machine learning to generative AI—to help make organizations more responsive, productive, and resilient. IBM Software helps clients put AI into action now to create real value with trust, speed, and confidence across digital labor, IT automation, application modernization, security, and sustainability. Critical to this is the ability to make use of all data, because AI is only as good as the data that fuels it. In most organizations data is spread across multiple clouds, on premises, in private datacenters, and at the edge. IBM’s AI and data platform scales and accelerates the impact of AI with trusted data, and provides leading capabilities to train, tune and deploy AI across business. IBM’s hybrid cloud platform is one of the most comprehensive and consistent approach to development, security, and operations across hybrid environments—a flexible foundation for leveraging data, wherever it resides, to extend AI deep into a business.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you’ll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on‑going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can‑do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM’s greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we’re also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it’s time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

Supplemental 1 employees may be eligible for up to 8 paid holidays, minimum of 56 hours paid sick time and the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan. IBM offers paid family medical leave and disability benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

IBM will not be providing visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future. Therefore, in order to be considered for this position, you must have the ability to work without a need for current or future visa sponsorship.

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full‑time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job‑related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro‑rated for those who start working during the calendar year.

Projected Minimum Salary per year

75,600.00

Projected Maximum Salary per year

138,600.00

Employment type

Co-Op (Fixed Term)

Contract type

Internship

Position type

Internship

Some travel may be required based on business demand

Shift

General (daytime)