Design Co‑Op: Service & Experience Design

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.
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.
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.
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.
This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 15 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.
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.
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00:01
I was always very fascinated at the impact that these tiny little transistors had on the world.
00:07
There's so much value inworking with a company
00:10
that has been able to reinventitself for over a century.
00:14
Currently, I'm a senior managerin the AI analytics practice.
00:17
I am a cybersecurity consultant.
00:19
00:21
I am a hardware engineer.
00:22
I am a mobile application developer.
00:24
We are a global team providing 24/7boots-on-the-ground support.
00:28
My responsibility is to design anddeliver secure, scalable
00:33
and high-performing mobile solutions.
00:35
My interest in tech began in 11th grade whenI first learned about semiconductors.
00:39
I design processor chips that go into high-performance computing servers.
00:43
Our team is responsible for ensuringthe end-to-end quality
00:47
and reliability of all of ourmicroprocessor products.
00:51
There's people who really believed in me
00:53
and they gave me that
00:54
opportunity to prove myself.
00:56
It reminded me that myreach is really a global effort.
01:00
This success gave me the confidence totake on larger leadership roles.
01:05
One of the proudest moments isbalancing my career and motherhood.
01:09
Joining IBM has, for me personally, been one of the greatest impactful moments in my career.
01:16
Lead.
01:17
01:18
Consult.
01:18
Go further.
01:19
Build the future like an IBMer.
Resume AutoScroll
Summary & chapters
Read as overview
Job Title
Designer Spring Co-op 2027
Date posted
13-Oct-2026
Job ID
133948
City / Township / Village
Austin
State / Province
Texas
Country
United States
Work arrangement
Hybrid
Area of work
Design & UX
Employment type
Co-Op (Fixed Term)
Contract type
Internship
Projected Minimum Salary per year
75,600.00
Projected Maximum Salary per year
138,600.00
Position type
Internship
Some travel may be required based on business demand
Company
(0147) International Business Machines Corporation
Shift
General (daytime)
Is this role a commissionable/sales incentive based position?

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