Design Spring Co-op 2027

About the Role

IBM Software turns client challenges into solutions by building AI-powered, cloud-native products that shape how businesses and society operate. IBMers have room to learn, grow, and make an impact on a global scale. Working in Software means joining a team driven by curiosity and collaboration, with exposure to diverse technologies, partners, and industries.

This is a 16-week Co-Op position for students enrolled in an accredited undergraduate program who want hands-on experience while contributing to real IBM projects. Candidates must be currently enrolled and able to pause coursework for the full Co-Op, since students may not take classes during the placement. The role requires full-time availability (40 hours per week) during the Spring 2027 semester, from January 19 to May 7. Candidates should also be available to join IBM full-time between December 2027 and August 2028 after completing their degree.

About the Team

The Product Excellence Office is IBM Software's centralized enablement team. It helps product teams adopt modern ways of working through education, coaching, best-practice guidance, and productivity tools. As a PEO Design Co-op, you will work on service design and transformation initiatives that improve how 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 touchpoints, and evaluate whether those experiences produce meaningful results.

What You'll Do

• Support service design research to understand how product teams work, 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 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.

Qualifications

• Actively enrolled in a Bachelor's degree program at the time of application and returning to complete the degree after the co-op.
• A portfolio or work samples demonstrating 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 such as Figma, FigJam, Miro, Mural, or Adobe Creative Suite.
• 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 Qualifications

• Coursework or experience in service design, design research, organizational design, learning experience design, content design, or change management.
• 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.