Description
This is a paid internship, range of $19/hr - $35/hr (depending on role and qualifications) for those currently pursuing undergraduate degrees and higher rates for those currently pursuing graduate level degrees.
Sound Transit also offers a competitive benefits package with a wide range of offerings, including:
- Health Benefits: We offer two choices of medical plans, a dental plan, and a vision plan all at no cost for employee coverage; comprehensive benefits for employees and eligible dependents, including a spouse or domestic partner.
- Employee Assistance Program.
- Paid Time Off: An accrual of up to 4 hours per pay period. Up to 2 floating holidays.
- Full-time interns will receive an ORCA card at no cost. This card can be used on buses, trains, water taxis in the Puget Sound region, along with the Monorail and Seattle Streetcar.
- In addition to compensation and benefits, you’ll find that we provide work-life balance, opportunities for professional development and recognition from your colleagues.
Tentative 2024 Internship Dates:
- Semester students: May 20th to July 26th
- Quarter students: June 24th to August 30th
DEPARTMENT OVERVIEW
Sound Transit’s Passenger Experience division oversees the experience of passengers making journeys throughout the Puget Sound region on Link, Sounder, ST Express, and Tacoma Link. The Innovation and Passenger Technology intern will have an opportunity to be a part of the team that oversees and implements our innovation and passenger technology services and learn how a large regional transit system is managed.
PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The following duties ARE NOT intended to serve as a comprehensive list of all duties performed by all employees in this classification, only a representative summary of the primary duties and responsibilities. Incumbent(s) may not be required to perform all duties listed and may be required to perform additional, position-specific duties.
Job duties:
- Work closely with product teams, as well as other researchers, to identify important research questions. Define and execute a comprehensive research plan.
- Identify best method or mix of quantitative and qualitative methods based on priorities, research questions, timeline, and resourcing
- Develop user personas
- Find creative ways to solve User Experience problems (e.g. usability, findability)
- Design, conduct, and analyze results from a variety of research studies including usability lab studies, remote research, field studies and survey design
- Analyze product interfaces
- Work cross-functionally with product design, product management, data science, content design, and engineering
- Present research methodology, results and user experience designs to project stakeholders, including interdepartmental teams and executive leadership
- Gather feedback from internal and external stakeholders
- Project coordination and management
- Meeting facilitation
Potential projects that may be assigned:
- User experience research, design, prototype development and testing
- User interface analysis, design, development and testing
- Software development
- Persona development
- Pilot project design
- Pilot success measurement
- Journey mapping
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Applicants must be a current college student in good academic standing, enrolled in an accredited four year university, working towards a Bachelor’s or Degree in User Experience Design, Human Factors Engineering, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Information Science, Assistive Technology, Disability Studies or related field or a graduate degree in Assistive Technology or related field.
ADDITIONAL SKILLS:
- Design thinking skills
- UX/UI research
- UX/UI design
- Human Factors Engineering
- Excellent communication, presentation, interpersonal, and analytical skills; the ability to communicate complex concepts clearly and persuasively across different audiences and varying levels of the organization
- Comfort with utilizing data to define and support hypotheses
- A passion and capacity to advocate on behalf of passengers.
- Ability to understand product specifications and user psychology
- Familiarity with design software and associated workflows
- Basic understanding of marketing, advertising and technology
- Attention to detail and willingness to ask questions
- Ability to work as part of a team
- Excellent organizational skills
- Keen attention to detail in all aspects of the job
- Self-starter with the ability to work independently
- Curiosity and an appetite for learning
- A user-centric and strategic approach
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Passion for accessible design
- UX software development
- Knowledge of research methods in at least one subset of methods (e.g., survey design and quantitative data analysis, ethnography, usability research) - qualitative and/or quantitative research
- Experience conveying research findings and implications to audiences
- Analytical, project management, and problem-solving experience
- Experience with autonomy and independent decision making to weigh tradeoffs and balance demands
- Interest in or work with assistive technologies. Examples: NVDA, JAWS, Zoomtext, Dragon Naturally Speaking.
- Working knowledge of international accessibility guidelines and standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) and the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) from the World Wide Web Consortium
- Knowledge of native mobile applications, mobile frameworks and mobile design best practices.
- Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills
- Excellent planning, problem solving and organizational skills
- Experience coordinating projects and leading meetings
- Ability to build trustful relationships and to work in diverse teams
PHYSICAL DEMANDS/ WORK ENVIRONMENT:
- Work is performed in a standard office environment.
- The Agency promotes a safe and healthy work environment and provides appropriate safety and equipment training for all personnel as required.
Sound Transit is an equal employment opportunity employer. No person is unlawfully excluded from employment action based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), age, genetic information, disability, veteran status or other protected class.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)
