Designer Intern (May 2025 – 16 months)
City : Markham
Category : Other
Industry : Technology/Computer Services
Employer : IBM
Introduction
The IBM Canada Lab in Markham, Ontario is one of the largest R&D facilities in Canada. As a Design intern at the IBM Canada Lab, you would be part of a team that transforms our customer’s challenges into solutions.
The mission of IBM's global software design organization is to empower users to do their best work through intuitive and visually engaging interfaces. As a Designer, you'll play a crucial role in creating end-to-end customer experiences.
Your Role and Responsibilities
This position resides in Markham, ON and is a 16 month work term commencing in May 2025. It is mandatory that all applicants are enrolled in full-time studies at a post-secondary institution and returning to full-time studies upon completion of the work-term.
As 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 may be concentrated around one or more products 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.
Key/Strategic Responsibilities
Required Technical and Professional Expertise
Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise
About Business UnitThis role would be working within Design teams for multiple business units within IBM Software. You may have the opportunity to work with teams helping to design Generative AI products as well as mainframe products and application modernization products for the IBM z/OS mainframe.
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.
Your Life @ IBMIBM'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.
We are dedicated to our client’s success. We believe in innovation that matters. In a world where technology never stands still, our trust and personal responsibility is the most important factor in our effort to make the world work better.
Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career. You will be encouraged to be courageous and experiment every day, while having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.
IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and eager to learn new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, and to collaborate with colleagues as a team; to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers.
Our IBMers make critical decisions every day. They embrace challenges with available resources, have a can-do attitude, and are always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.
Are you ready to be an IBMer?
About IBMRestlessly 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 50 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.
Location StatementMust have the ability to work in Canada without sponsorship.
This role will involve working with technology that is covered by Export Regulations sanctions. If you are a Foreign National from any of the following US sanctioned countries (Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia regions of Ukraine) on a work permit, you are not eligible for employment in this position.
Being You @ IBMis committed to creating a diverse environment and 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, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.
The IBM Canada Lab in Markham, Ontario is one of the largest R&D facilities in Canada. As a Design intern at the IBM Canada Lab, you would be part of a team that transforms our customer’s challenges into solutions.
The mission of IBM's global software design organization is to empower users to do their best work through intuitive and visually engaging interfaces. As a Designer, you'll play a crucial role in creating end-to-end customer experiences.
Your Role and Responsibilities
This position resides in Markham, ON and is a 16 month work term commencing in May 2025. It is mandatory that all applicants are enrolled in full-time studies at a post-secondary institution and returning to full-time studies upon completion of the work-term.
As 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 may be concentrated around one or more products 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.
Key/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
- 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.
- 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)
Required Technical and Professional Expertise
- UI Problem Solving: Ability to solve complex user problems through user interface design, creating mock-ups, prototypes, and documenting interaction patterns.
- Design Tools Proficiency: Demonstrated experience with design tools such as Sketch, InVision, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.
- Visual Design Skills: Proficient in creating visually compelling artifacts, icons, high fidelity mock-ups, and other graphical elements for user interfaces.
- Design Principles: Knowledge of design principles including typography, layout, imagery, colour theory, and creating efficiencies in visual design workflows.
- Communication Skills: Proven communication skills and the ability to understand and address customer requirements effectively.
- Dynamic Environment: Comfortable working in a dynamic, team-based environment.
- Portfolio Presentation: Must have a portfolio showcasing previous design work.
- Must be eligible to work 12 months starting in January
Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise
- Design Trends Awareness: Understanding of modern design thinking and design trends, including responsiveness and accessibility.
- Attention to Detail: Appreciation for detail, ensuring every pixel and interaction is meticulously crafted.
- Workshop Facilitation: Knowledge in planning and moderating design thinking workshops.
- Registered in a formal co-op/internship program
About Business UnitThis role would be working within Design teams for multiple business units within IBM Software. You may have the opportunity to work with teams helping to design Generative AI products as well as mainframe products and application modernization products for the IBM z/OS mainframe.
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.
Your Life @ IBMIBM'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.
We are dedicated to our client’s success. We believe in innovation that matters. In a world where technology never stands still, our trust and personal responsibility is the most important factor in our effort to make the world work better.
Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career. You will be encouraged to be courageous and experiment every day, while having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.
IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and eager to learn new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, and to collaborate with colleagues as a team; to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers.
Our IBMers make critical decisions every day. They embrace challenges with available resources, have a can-do attitude, and are always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.
Are you ready to be an IBMer?
About IBMRestlessly 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 50 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.
Location StatementMust have the ability to work in Canada without sponsorship.
This role will involve working with technology that is covered by Export Regulations sanctions. If you are a Foreign National from any of the following US sanctioned countries (Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia regions of Ukraine) on a work permit, you are not eligible for employment in this position.
Being You @ IBMis committed to creating a diverse environment and 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, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.