Experience Design and Research Intern

Commonwealth of Massachusetts • Boston, MA

8h • Hybrid

About The Position

The Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) is the lead enterprise technology organization for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Charged with driving the ongoing alignment of business and technology across the Commonwealth’s Executive Branch, EOTSS oversees and manages the enterprise technology, digital infrastructure and services, as well as the Commonwealth Security Operations Center and an enterprise Standard Operating Environment that includes an information security and risk management framework for over 125 state agencies and over 43,000 state employees. We directly serve our constituents by providing digital services and tools that enable taxpayers, drivers, businesses, visitors, families and other citizens to do business with the Commonwealth in a way that makes every interaction with government easier, faster, and more secure.
Our Mission: We provide technology leadership across the Commonwealth to enhance the quality of public service and foster positive community outcomes.
About Mass Digital:
The Massachusetts Digital Service, a division of EOTSS, partners with organizations across state government to transform how residents, visitors, businesses, and government agencies interact with the Commonwealth. Our mission is to design and deliver accessible/inclusive, seamless, effective, and secure digitally enabled end-to-end experiences that adapt to a person’s needs, so that every time they engage with any part of their government, they're getting the most and best of the Commonwealth.
Our team strives to grow an actionable understanding of the people we serve, design & deliver transformative experiences and solutions, and accelerate human-centered innovation across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts government. We’re committed to inclusive, iterative human-centered design - guided by continuous experience research engagements with a diverse and representative set of Massachusetts government constituents. In this internship you’ll support key initiatives in the Commonwealth Digital Roadmap.
We strive to create a culture of belonging in Mass Digital. We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the Commonwealth and to celebrating our differences. All applicants and employees drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equal opportunity and fair treatment. We will recruit, hire, compensate, train and promote without regard to race, color, gender (identity and expression), sex, sexual orientation, creed, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, disability status, veteran’s status, or anything else that describes your identity as a human being.
About the role:
Are you interested in solving meaningful problems and transforming the experiences of millions of constituents interacting with Massachusetts? We’re looking for a well-organized and purpose-driven Experience Researcher Intern with experience in Quantitative research methods to join our Experience Design and Research team at the Massachusetts Digital Service (Mass Digital) You’ll collaborate with our growing Experience Design and Research team, product managers, stakeholders, and agency partners to organize and accelerate the work and impact of our Experience Research program. As an Experience Design and Research Intern, you have a strong interest in deeply understanding people to inform, guide, and inspire the design and optimization of peoples’ experiences and outcomes when engaging with government services.
In this role you will:
Pair with an Experience Researcher to plan and execute research activities
Contribute to the evolution of our experience research practice by supporting experience measurement initiatives and evaluation. This will include conducting data analysis, ensuring data quality, and building reusable and well-documented data analysis code that supports ongoing monitoring and reporting. You will also contribute to Research Operations initiatives (participant recruitment, knowledge management, workshop planning, etc.), as needed.
Serve as a spokesperson for human centered research and design and help guide colleagues within Commonwealth of Massachusetts government agencies to conduct inclusive experience research with constituents.
This position is a full-time internship. The work schedule for this position is Monday through Friday, 9:00AM to 5:00PM EST, in a hybrid remote arrangement with 4-8 days per month spent at the primary work location: One Ashburton Place, Boston, Massachusetts 02108. Applicants should be located within reasonable commuting distance from the primary work location.
The duration of this summer internship is from Monday, June 1st through Friday, August 7th, 2026.

Requirements

• Interest in UX research and design
• Interest in government tech/government service
• Strong analytical skills and quantitative knowledge of statistical software such as Stata (preferred), Python, and or R
• Currently enrolled at a higher education institute with a preference for majoring in: Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Human Factors, Design
• Enthusiastic about solving problems facing public-sector agencies and promoting equitable constituent access to public services using modern technology and human-centered design and research practices
• Strong verbal and written communication and storytelling skills
• An interest in accessible, inclusive and equitable human-centered design and digital/omnichannel service design and development
• A commitment to inclusive, equitable and trauma informed research

Responsibilities

• Work with the Experience Research team to select, adapt, and apply quantitative and qualitative research methods to: explore, analyze, and understand constituents’ experiences and complex service contexts; support a collaborative, generative design process; and evaluate the value and effectiveness of programs, concepts, prototypes, and working solutions for constituents
• Support continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to refine and strengthen measurement approaches and data use.
• Ability to clean, analyze, and interpret complex datasets to generate meaningful insights.
• Create & refine experience research related artifacts (e.g. experience models, personas, journey maps, scenarios, narratives, behavioral/impact analytics summaries, etc.) to memorialize and grow the team’s actionable understanding of constituents and help identify and prioritize opportunities to improve digital and omnichannel service experiences
• Identify, learn from, synthesize, and apply relevant secondary research literature from relevant domains (e.g., psychology and behavior change; socio-cultural-contextual research, etc.)
• Help lead and contribute to the growth of our Experience Research practice by contributing to our playbook and best practices, and facilitating learning (within Mass Digital and across the government)

Benefits

• Comprehensive Benefits
• When you embark on a career with the Commonwealth, you are offered an outstanding suite of employee benefits that add to the overall value of your compensation package. We take pride in providing a work experience that supports you, your loved ones, and your future.
• Want the specifics? Explore our Employee Benefits and Rewards!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: No Education Listed