📍
San Francisco, CA

2026 Intern - User Experience Research

Internship
Media & Comms
Science
Posted:
December 28, 2025

Adobe

Creative software and digital media solutions
78.8
Palpable Score
Apply >view company >

The Opportunity

Are you seeking a summer internship where you can learn how to conduct your own research and take on real strategic problems in the tech industry?

Adobe Design Research & Strategy (ADRS) is searching for experience research interns who will work in areas with high business impact.

We are a team of researchers with a wide range of backgrounds, including Psychology, Anthropology, HCI, Computer Science, Design and Management, Linguistics and more.

We are excited to learn more about you, your background and your curiosity about human-centered design!

All 2026 Adobe interns will be co-located hybrid. This means that interns will work between their assigned office and home. Interns will be based in the office where their manager and/or team are located, where they will get the most support to ensure collaboration and the best employee experience. Managers and their organization will determine the frequency they need to go into the office to meet priorities.

What You’ll Do

· With the support of a mentor in Adobe Design Research & Strategy (ADRS), you will learn how to conduct research in an area with high business impact..

· Get up to speed with the topic/problem: You will meet with collaborators to understand their needs, including designers, product managers, developers and other researchers. After reviewing any previous research on the topic, you will propose your own study that strives to provide net-new insight for Adobe.

· Own your research: You will develop key artifacts needed to complete a research study, including a research plan, screener, recruiting strategy and moderator guide. Then you will start your research!

· Communicate findings and recommendations through storytelling: You will work with your mentor to present what you've learned and be decisive on what Adobe should do next. You will manage multiple opportunities to share your research before you leave Adobe, including meetings with core collaborators, the Intern Project Expo and Adobe Design’s intern showcase.

· You will leave your internship ready to lead your own research study, and Adobe will have new research recommendations and ideas that we can put into action.

What You Need to Succeed

· Currently enrolled full time and pursuing a Bachelors, Masters or PhD degree in psychology (social, organizational, cognitive, applied or experimental), anthropology, sociology, human-computer interaction, strategic design & management, marketing, business or communications; or equivalent degree required with an expected graduation date of December 2026 – June 2027. (Coursework on human-centered research practices is a plus)

· Previous project, internship or work experience in human-centered research. We are curious about your experience with listening, observing and communicating through reports and slide decks. (Qualitative research and consulting experience are major pluses.)

· Ability to take initiative and drive projects with strong organizational skills.

· Experience building open, positive relationships in teams with many moving parts.

· Experience quickly processing new information and adapting to challenges.

· Experience leading through ambiguous and complex situations.

· Ability to participate in a full-time internship between May-September

About the company

Adobe

Company overview
Adobe is a software company best known for Creative Cloud products like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro, plus Document Cloud (Acrobat) and Experience Cloud for marketing, analytics, and commerce. Adobe sells subscriptions to individuals, teams, enterprises, and public-sector organisations. Adobe has also built and marketed generative AI features such as Adobe Firefly across creative workflows. Adobe is headquartered in San Jose, California and operates globally.

Locations and presence

Adobe’s corporate headquarters is in San Jose, and Adobe lists a large network of offices across the US and other countries. For student roles, many 2026 internship postings state a “co-located hybrid” approach, splitting time between an assigned office and home based on team expectations.

Palpable Score

78.8
/ 100
Adobe offers multiple clear entry routes, from internships across functions to university graduate roles, and Adobe backs that up with visible intern programming and a structured hiring-process outline. Pay range visibility is better than many large tech employers, and Adobe Digital Academy publishes unusually specific retention and promotion outcomes. The biggest gap is that Adobe does not publish consistent, company-wide outcomes for internships and new-grad hiring, such as conversion rates and typical time-to-promotion.
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