Product Design, Design System Intern (Graduate, Summer 2026)

Sigma Computing•San Francisco, CA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Sigma’s vision is to create an insight-driven world where people and organizations are transformed for the better by access to data and the insights it contains. At Sigma, we are building a cloud-native business intelligence platform that allows users to tap into their biggest databases hosted in the cloud and easily conduct analysis and graph data -- all without any programming involved. We are looking for Graduate students who are passionate about designing world-class, understandable experiences. You will be an integral part of a talented team of designers, on a shared mission to make data analytics highly usable and easily accessible to non-technical users through consistent and scalable design. Come join us in redefining the way users access their data and build workflows. Our internship program at Sigma: Sigma’s early career program is the launchpad for the next generation of innovators. As an Intern at Sigma, you’ll work on various production features and learn efficient design for large scalable systems. Our interns work directly with our engineers, product leaders, and designers across the organization everyday. We’re looking for students who bring curiosity, a spirit for collaboration, and a desire for shaping the future of business insights and data exploration. Internship Program Qualifications: Current student : Applicants for this internship must be currently enrolled in a university graduate degree program in the U.S with a graduation date of December 2026 or later Able to intern from June 2026 through August / early September 2026 Authorization : You must be legally authorized to work in the US during the Summer 2026 program Visa sponsorship is not available for our internship positions Location: This internship is in-person and located within San Francisco, CA. Relocation assistance will be provided for students who will need to relocate for the summer in the form of a relocation bonus. Applicants must be able to work in-person in our SF office About the Team: The Sigma Design team is dedicated to crafting exceptional user experience. At the heart of our work is Phi, our comprehensive design system. Phi enables speed, consistency, and quality across all our platforms by providing reusable components, clear standards, and foundational guidelines. About the Role: We are seeking a motivated and detail-oriented Product Design System Graduate Intern to contribute directly to the evolution and maintenance of Phi as a part of our summer 2026 internship program. This role is ideal for a current design student who is passionate about the intersection of design, engineering, and systematic thinking. You will be instrumental in helping us scale our design language, focusing on clarity, accessibility, and implementation fidelity.

Requirements

Actively pursuing a Graduate level degree in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Graphic Design or similar field graduating in December 2026 or June 2027
Located within the U.S. and able to work full-time in our San Francisco HQ (40 hours per week) between June 2026 - August / September 2026
Authorization: You must be legally authorized to work in the US during the Summer 2026 program Visa sponsorship is not available for our internship positions
Strong facilitation, communication, and presentation skills; demonstrating the ability to clearly explain design decisions to anyone in the company
Your portfolio must demonstrate a deep understanding of systematic design thinking, component logic, and the relationship between design and engineering. Specifically, showcase your proficiency with modern design tools (like Figma), including the use of Auto Layout, Variables/Tokens, and nesting/composition that enable component scalability.
Describe your design process for solving problems with system constraints in mind, such as optimizing for accessibility (WCAG standards) or creating clear, reusable documentation/guidelines.
We are interested in use cases that show how you organize files, structure components, and approach a problem from a framework perspective, not just the final visual output.
If you do not feel that you satisfy all the listed requirements, we encourage you to still apply. We are enthusiastically looking for people that will help us grow our company and sometimes we are imperfect communicators and can’t articulate perfectly what experience is required for a role. We are looking for people that are excited to grow and constantly ask how we can do things better.

Responsibilities

Component design & documentation: Contribute to the design, documentation, and maintenance of core UI components (e.g., buttons, forms, navigation elements) within the Phi library in Figma.
System governance: Help audit existing components for consistency, accessibility (WCAG standards), and adherence to established design tokens and principles.
Design & development collaboration: Work closely with Product Designers and Front-End Engineers to ensure design system components are implemented accurately and are scalable in code.
Guideline Creation: Write clear, concise usage guidelines, accessibility notes, and best practices for components to empower product teams across the organization.
Tooling & process improvement: Assist in identifying and documenting opportunities to improve the workflow between design and engineering using Phi.
User feedback & research: Gather internal feedback from product teams on the usability of the design system and propose practical solutions for system improvement.
Mentorship & Experience: You’ll get mentored by experienced and passionate design systems practitioners and gain industry exposure to how experience teams build and scale a platform's design language.