UX Design Intern (Summer 2027)

We believe an athletic director's job is one of the most critical in a community: to shape the lives and experiences of student-athletes. But as we listened, we learned that with dwindling budgets and growing responsibilities, they’ve had no choice but to spend more time managing logistics than leading their teams and programs. After countless conversations, we gained a deep understanding of their challenges, from handling transactions to managing schedules and tracking results.

This insight was the catalyst for Bound. We created an all-in-one platform to give ADs back their time. With our OneSchedule Technology at its core, our platform integrates essential tools like Activity Registration, Tickets and Passes, and 20+ additional solutions. Today, Bound empowers schools across the country to manage every aspect of their athletics and activities, all within a single, unified solution.

We're not just a software company; we are a team made up of former athletic directors, administrators, coaches, parents, and fans. We all share one core belief: in the power of youth sports and activities to positively impact communities and the people who live in them.

At Bound, internships are a structured experience designed to give you real ownership, real mentorship, and a real project to point to when you're done.

• A Capstone Project — You will own a meaningful project from day one through the final presentation, giving you something substantial to show for your summer.
• Real Team Experience — Beyond your project, you will be embedded in your team's day-to-day work, gaining hands-on exposure to how Bound operates.
• Mentorship & Support — regular 1:1s with your supervisor and a buddy to help you navigate your summer.
• Connection — Intern events and opportunities to connect with the broader Bound team.
• Program dates — Summer 2027 internships run May 17 – August 6, 2027 (approximately 12 weeks).

As a UX Design Intern at Bound, you'll spend the summer contributing to real product work that helps athletic directors, coaches, and families spend less time on logistics and more time on what matters. You'll partner closely with our UX Design team to research, design, and prototype features across the platform, from our native app, to our responsive website, to our admin tool, gaining hands-on experience with the full design process, not just the visual layer. This role exists to bring a fresh, research-minded perspective to our design team while giving you real ownership over shippable work, not just busywork. Success in this role looks like contributing meaningfully to at least one feature from early research through final design, and leaving with a clearer sense of how research, data, and design work together on a fast-moving product team.

• →Design user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups in Figma for features across Bound’s app, public website, and admin tool
• →Collaborate with product managers and engineers to translate requirements into clear, intuitive interfaces
• →Support user research efforts, including planning and conducting interviews or usability tests with athletic directors, coaches, parents, and student-athletes
• →Synthesize research findings into insights, personas, or journey maps that inform design decisions
• →Contribute to and help maintain Bound’s Figma component library, keeping designs consistent and reusable
• →Build prototypes to communicate design intent and test concepts before development
• →Participate in design critiques and iterate on work based on team feedback
• →Help evaluate designs post-launch by gathering user feedback and identifying areas to improve
• →Explore how AI tools like Claude can support and speed up design and research workflows
• →Document design decisions to support clean handoff to engineering
• →Present work to cross-functional teams

• Currently pursuing a degree or a recent graduate, majoring in UX Design, Graphic Design with an emphasis in UX design, or a closely related field
• Hands-on experience designing in Figma
• Working knowledge of core UX principles and the design process; research, ideation, prototyping, testing
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain design decisions clearly
• Portfolio link showcasing your UX design process and work, submitted along with your resume

• Genuine interest in the research side of UX and using data to make informed UX decisions; performing user interviews, usability testing, synthesis
• Experience using Claude or other AI tools as part of a design or research workflow
• Experience working within Figma component libraries or design systems (variants, auto layout, shared styles)

• Curious and detail-oriented, equally energized by understanding a problem and designing the solution
• A collaborative communicator who shares work-in-progress comfortably and takes feedback well
• Comfortable with ambiguity and excited to learn in a fast-moving startup environment
• Someone who sees research and design as two halves of the same process, not separate tracks

Bound does not operate on a traditional “routine” workweek. When work needs to be done, we collaborate to get it done — whether that’s in the morning, afternoon, evening, or occasionally on weekends.

At the same time, Bound supports flexibility for personal needs, family events, appointments, and time to recharge. Employees are trusted to manage their schedules while meeting deadlines and delivering high‑quality work.

Bound supports in-office, remote and hybrid work. Some roles may require on‑site presence depending on team needs and responsibilities. Location expectations for this role: Ames, IA office, hybrid flexibility