Intern, Product Design

Location: San Francisco, California, United States of America

About Zendesk Zendesk makes sales, support, and customer engagement software to help businesses offer a differentiated customer experience. Design is an integral part of everyday life at Zendesk, and Design Operations is instrumental in enabling our team to work together more effectively and have a greater impact on our people and products.

We are looking for a Design Operations Intern (also known as a Design Program Manager or Producer intern) to join the Zendesk Product Design team with a specific focus on AI Enablement
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As the design landscape rapidly shifts, we are evolving our usage of AI tools. You will help drive this internal transformation by auditing design workflows, piloting new AI capabilities, and supporting the team in integrating AI as a partner for both craft and speed. You will report to the Director of Product Design Operations and work closely with our "AI Champions" to operationalize the future of design at Zendesk.

Our Commitment to Responsible AI At Zendesk, we are committed to building and using AI that is transparent, accountable, and safe. As a Design Ops intern, you will play a key role in ensuring our internal AI enablement respects user privacy, mitigates algorithmic bias, and maintains the "human-in-the-loop" philosophy that is core to our design craft.

• AI-Literate & Curious: You stay on top of the rapidly evolving landscape of AI tools (like LLMs, generative UI tools, and AI-powered design plugins) and are eager to explore how they can be applied to design processes.

• Process-Oriented: You enjoy breaking down complex workflows and identifying friction points where automation or AI can add the most value.

• People-Centered: You are a strong communicator who can translate technical AI capabilities into practical guidance for designers, researchers, and content designers.

• Design-Minded: You have a solid understanding of the product design lifecycle and are passionate about maintaining high design quality while increasing operational velocity.

• Critically Optimistic: You are excited about AI’s potential but remain healthily skeptical of its "black box" nature. You ask the hard questions: “Is this fair? Is this transparent? Who might this exclude?”

• Workflow Optimization: Identify specific design and research workflows (e.g., documentation, prototyping, synthesis) that can be best enabled by AI to help increase creative bandwidth.

• Audit & Inventory: Help maintain and update an internal AI tool inventory, tracking approved tools, primary use cases, and integration opportunities.

• Enablement Materials: Assist in creating and publishing "AI in Design" quick-start guides, FAQs, and best practices for tools like Figma, Make, and Lovable.

• Community Support: Help coordinate the "AI Champions" program and knowledge-sharing rituals like "AI Show & Tells" to surface successful AI use cases across the design org.

• Measure Impact: Support the collection and analysis of metrics regarding AI adoption, time saved, and its impact on designer satisfaction.

• Currently enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate program in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Business Operations, Program Management, or a related field.

• A portfolio/collection of case studies demonstrating design thinking and problem solving skills.

• Must be authorized to work in the U.S.

• Familiarity with Design Thinking principles and the product development lifecycle.

• Hands‑on experience with emerging AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Figma AI, or coding assistants like Cursor).

• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple small‑scale projects or experiments simultaneously.

• Curiosity, high tolerance for ambiguity, and passion for learning.

• Strong interest in Inclusive Design or Accessibility (A11y), applying these lenses to how AI tools are used or what they produce.

• Familiarity with established ethical AI frameworks (e.g., IEEE 7000, the FAST principles—Fairness, Accountability, Sustainability, Transparency, or the EU AI Act).

The US hourly base rate range for this…