Product Design Intern

Linkyn; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 41,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mentorship by founder

Remote internship

Portfolio-ready projects

Job summary

Linkyn is seeking a Product Design Intern to shape the UX for an AI-powered outreach platform. This hands-on, founder-led internship provides real ownership across user research, interaction design, visual systems, and shipped product features.

The role is remote in the United States (Eastern Time preferred) with a Summer 2026 window. You’ll collaborate with the founder, design dashboards and data visualizations, and contribute to a design system in Figma.

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in integration design, HCI, CS, or related field.
• Online portfolio showing end-to-end UX/UI case studies and clean visual craft.
• Strong proficiency with Figma, auto-layout, component states, and interactive prototyping.

Responsibilities

• Design user-centric interfaces, flows, and experiences for Linkyn's core product.
• Translate AI-driven data into intuitive dashboard visualizations and signal feeds.
• Map comprehensive user journeys, wireframes, and prototypes for new features.
• Maintain and contribute to Linkyn's design system in Figma.
• Collaborate with the founder on product strategy and UX tradeoffs.
• Work with engineers to ensure high-fidelity implementation and design handoffs.
• Conduct lightweight user research and usability testing to validate decisions.
• Identify UX friction points and design intuitive UI iterations to improve retention and velocity.
• Write clear design specs explaining complex flows.

Skills

Visual design fundamentals

User research

Interaction design

Systems thinking

Prototyping

Communication

Ownership and initiative

Education

Degree in product design / HCI / CS

Tools

Figma

Auto-layout

Component states

Interactive prototyping

Job description

Linkyn is looking for a strong Product Design Intern to help design the user experience for an AI-powered relationship-aware outreach platform. This is a hands-on, founder-led internship for designers who want real ownership across user research, interaction design, visual systems, and shipped product features.

Location

Remote - U.S. only, Eastern Time preferred

Type

Internship

Remote

Fully remote, with preference for candidates in New York / New Jersey or Eastern

Compensation

$30–$40/hour

Description

Linkyn is an early-stage startup building an AI-powered relationship-aware outreach platform that helps students, founders, and marketers find relevant people, identify warm connection signals, and generate personalized emails, LinkedIn DMs, and follow-ups.We are looking for a Product Design Intern who is a strong visual and intentional thinker and wants to work on a real, live product rather than abstract prompt concepts. This role is end-to-end product design; you should be comfortable moving from messy user research and wireframes into polished, high-fidelity UI designs. You will work on dashboard interfaces, outreach workflows, data visualization for connection signals, onboarding flows, and internal tools.This is a full-time Summer 2026 internship. The role is remote within the United States, with a preference for candidates based in New York, New Jersey, or Eastern Time. Exceptional performance may lead to semester employment or a return offer.The first week will include onboarding resources, user persona deep-dives, and architecture walkthroughs, but this role is best for someone who already has strong visual design fundamentals, experience building functional prototypes, and deep comfort with Figma. We care less about flashy, non-functional concept designs and more about whether you can reason through user edge-cases, design logical flows, and improve an existing product experience.

Responsibilities

• Design user-centric interfaces, flows, and experiences for Linkyn's core product
• Translate complex, AI-driven data inputs into intuitive dashboard visualizations and connection signal feeds
• Map out comprehensive user journeys, wireframes, and interactive prototypes for new product features
• Maintain, scale, and contribute to Linkyn's component library and design system in Figma
• Collaborate directly with the founder on product strategy, feature scoping, and UX tradeoffs
• Work closely with the software engineering team to ensure high-fidelity implementation and seamless design handoffs
• Conduct lightweight user research, competitive analysis, and usability testing to validate design decisions
• Identify current UX friction points and design intuitive UI iterations to improve product retention and setup velocity
• Write clear documentation or design specs explaining the logic behind complex flows and interaction patterns
• Ship production-ready design files with deep care, pixel-perfect ownership, and attention to typographic hierarchy

Requirements

• Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in integration design, human-computer interaction (HCI), computer science, or a related field
• An online portfolio demonstrating end-to-end UX/UI project case studies and attention to clean visual craft
• Deep technical proficiency with Figma, auto-layout, component states, and interactive prototyping
• Strong systems thinking and the ability to map out complex user flows with multiple edge cases
• Basic understanding of product strategy, user psychology, and how to design for business goals
• Experience collaborating on projects and handling design feedback constructively
• Ability to reason through usability tradeoffs and clearly articulate the "why" behind your design choices
• Strong communication skills and willingness to ask questions early
• High ownership, strong work ethic, and interest in early-stage startups
• Available full-time during the Summer 2026 window
• Authorized to work in the United States; F-1/CPT/OPT candidates will be considered

Nice-to-haves

• Basic understanding of front-end development (HTML, CSS, Tailwind, or React) to ease engineering collaboration
• Experience designing complex B2B SaaS platforms, dashboards, CRM workflows, or data-heavy interfaces
• Experience designing with AI constraints, LLM outputs, or conversational AI interfaces Hackathon projects, startup projects, agency work, or shipped personal digital products
• Strong GPA combined with meaningful side projects or practical design work
• Experience with micro-interactions, motion design, or basic web animations
• Familiarity with visual branding, copywriting, or designing marketing landing pages
• Ability to quickly dissect unfamiliar software workflows and improve them without needing heavy supervision

Benefits / other compensation

Paid internship with a fully remote work structure, direct founder mentorship, production-level ownership, portfolio-ready projects, and potential consideration for semester employment and/or a return offer based on exceptional performance.

Equal opportunity statement

We are an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.

Small team, clear writing, thoughtful pace, and high care for candidates.

Linkyn is based around Eastern Time, so some collaboration may happen during ET business hours.