2027 Internship - Human Centered Design

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory•Laurel, MD

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Help multidisciplinary teams understand complex problems, uncover what people truly need, and turn those insights into concepts that can improve real-world systems. The Operations & Analysis Group is seeking an intern to be a member of multi-disciplinary teams in the discovery, design and development of innovative solutions for complex problems to improve the lives of our end-users. Our teams use human-centered design approaches to tackle complex challenges in strategic planning, process improvement, product design, and service delivery for the DoW. You’ll be joining our team of problem solvers to research and analyze the challenge space, and conceptualize and develop high-impact concepts.

Requirements

Pursuing a degree in Human-Centered Design, Design Thinking, Product Design, Human Systems Engineering, Human Factors Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering or Design, Organizational Behavior, Public Policy, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Anthropology, User Experience Design, Business Administration or a related field with a minimum 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale
Enjoy working on teams and feel comfortable facilitating collaboration across disciplines.
Have a foundational understanding (or burning curiosity) around methods like human-centered design, systems thinking, product design, or service design
Have a passion for building team culture, driving innovation, and building/executing strategic initiatives
Love solving hard problems through iteration, learning, and creativity
Possess excellent oral and written communication skills
Able to obtain Interim Secret level security clearance by your start date and can ultimately obtain Secret level clearance. If selected, you will be subject to a government security clearance investigation and must meet the requirements for access to classified information. Eligibility requirements include U.S. citizenship.

Nice To Haves

Hold an Active Secret clearance or above
Hold a Bachelors Degree or higher in any of the disciplines listed above (or an equivalent field)
Have experience or coursework in human-centered design methodologies such as human-centered design, design thinking, agile, lean six sigma, lean start up, and user-centered design
Have familiarity with collaboration methodologies from industry (e.g. Google Sprint, LUMA, etc.)
Are confident using Miro, Figma, or other collaborative or design tools
Have experience with ethnographic research and synthesis
Have experience with rapid prototyping and user testing

Responsibilities

Work with cross-functional teams to develop critical concepts for our sponsors, bringing your perspective while actively building on the ideas of others
Immerse in the problem space through interviews, observations, and research to understand user needs, pain points, and context with curiosity and empathy
Synthesize qualitative and quantitative data to uncover patterns, insights, and opportunity areas
Contribute to design workshops and co-creation sessions with users, stakeholders, and technical experts
Build low-fidelity prototypes and experiments to test ideas with users, seek feedback early, and iterate based on what you learn