Year-Round Intern - CX

The OCC•Chicago, IL

20h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is seeking a Year-Round Intern for its CX (Customer Experience) team within the ETS (Enterprise Technology Services) department. This internship is a 12-month opportunity designed for students actively enrolled in college or university, running from January through December. Interns will work up to 20 hours per week during the school year and up to 40 hours per week during the summer, with a maximum of 1,000 hours total. The role is based in a hybrid work environment, requiring at least 3 days per week in the OCC office, with Tuesdays and Wednesdays as anchor days. This is a hands-on role where the intern will contribute to meaningful projects, gain real-world skills, and have ownership of artifacts and facilitation experience. The intern will support active research initiatives, help build and maintain listening post infrastructure, assist with journey mapping and service design workshops, and contribute to UX research and design activities that shape user experiences with internal and external technology services.

Requirements

Rising senior or second-year graduate student, graduating December 2027 or May/August 2028.
Actively pursuing a degree in Human-Computer Interaction, UX Design, Information Science, Psychology, Business, Marketing, Communications, or a related field.
Coursework or project experience in user research, service design, human-centered design, or customer experience is strongly preferred.
Master's Degree student preferred.
Familiarity with digital whiteboarding or design collaboration tools such as Miro, Mural, FigJam, or Figma.
Basic proficiency in Excel or Google Sheets for data organization, survey analysis, or reporting.
Exposure to survey design or data collection tools (Microsoft Forms, Google Forms, Qualtrics, or SurveyMonkey).
Exposure to user research tools (Hotjar, Optimal Workshop, etc.).
Familiarity with journey mapping, personas, or other UX/CX research artifacts through coursework or project work.
Basic experience with project or task management tools (Jira, Trello, Asana, or similar) is a plus.
Familiarity with presentation tools (PowerPoint) for communicating research findings.
Experience with qualitative research and facilitation.
Demonstrated interest in human-centered design principles, with the ability to apply empathy-based thinking to research and problem-solving.
The ability to synthesize findings and present them clearly.
Organized and detail-oriented, able to track multiple tasks and maintain documentation accurately.
Collaborative working style with a genuine interest in how people interact with technology.
Intellectual curiosity about IT systems, enterprise tools, and internal service delivery.
Portfolio, coursework samples, or class projects that demonstrate research, design, or analysis work are strongly encouraged in the application.

Nice To Haves

Master's Degree student preferred.
Basic experience with project or task management tools (Jira, Trello, Asana, or similar) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Support user research by assisting in planning and conducting user interviews and surveys with internal employees.
Synthesize research findings into affinity diagrams, experience summaries, and personas.
Participate in and support the facilitation of journey mapping workshops.
Contribute to the documentation and refinement of current-state journey maps and service blueprints.
Help deploy and monitor feedback instruments across ETS touchpoints.
Track response rates, flag data quality issues, and summarize emerging themes from feedback.
Assist with pulling and organizing CX data, updating dashboard visualizations, and preparing summaries.
Support UX research activities including usability testing, navigation testing, heuristic review, or design feedback sessions.
Maintain Jira backlog items tied to CX improvement work.
Document meeting outcomes and keep project artifacts organized and current.