Product Design Student Intern

About Us   Powered by one of the largest global newsrooms in sports media, The Athletic brings sports fans the most comprehensive stories about the teams, sports and athletes they love. The Athletic’s newsroom of 500+ full-time staff delivers in-depth coverage of hundreds of professional and college teams across more than 47 North American markets and all 20 football clubs in the English Premier League, as well as many Championship clubs.

The mission of The Athletic’s internship program is meant to attract and develop the industry’s next stars. The intern will help shape our most informative coverage while helping to advance our goal to be the top destination for sports news around the world.

About the Role

The Athletic is accepting applications for its Leon H. Carter newsroom internship, a 12-week program either remote or based in New York City, which will run from June 2027 to August 2027. Dates of internship are subject to change.

The intern will be embedded on our Product Design team, which will expose the intern to every facet of the product development and design process. The mission of The Athletic’s internship program is to attract and develop the industry’s next stars. The intern will help shape our most informative coverage while helping to advance our goal to be the top destination for sports news around the world.

The rate of pay for this role is $25.00 USD per hour. 

The application deadline is 11/15/2026

Responsibilities

• Work with product managers to ideate on design solutions for our defined business problems and goals.
• Develop designs and prototypes at various levels of fidelity to communicate your ideas and desired user experiences.
• Work alongside our research team as needed.
• Create high-quality, detailed deliverables to hand off to engineers.
• Work alongside the engineering team to make sure your designs are built to spec and identify any edge cases that need to be addressed.
• Participate in product design team meetings and design critiques.

Requirements

• Undergraduate students who are ideally in their junior or senior year. All undergraduates and post graduates are encouraged to apply however.
• Ability to work a 30 to 40 hour work week.
• Previous design internship experience is a plus.
• Experience designing and working in Figma.
• Experience working with Claude Code is a plus.
• Flexibility: ability to adapt to fast-paced work environments where needs and priorities can change quickly.
• Deep knowledge of and a passion for sports.
• This is a remote internship that will require some travel to New York City. Candidates based in New York City have the option of working on-site in the New York office.

Application Directions

• Submit a resume.
• Submit an essay between 500 to 700 words explaining why you should be considered for this internship, including but not limited to your main area of interest - Product Design.
• Submit 2 letters of recommendation. Letters can be added directly to the application or emailed to careers@theathletic.com.
• Submit a portfolio of at least 5 relevant samples showcasing strong Web and App Product Design skills. For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.   For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.

We are excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process. If you are a candidate for a technical role, we will let you know what specific tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.

The Athletic Media Company is an equal opportunity employer and enthusiastically encourages people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply. The Athletic will consider all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.   Click here to review our Applicant Privacy Notice, which describes how and when The Athletic Media Company collects, uses, and shares certain personal information of job applicants and prospective employees.   Beware of fraudulent job recruiting schemes! Our recruiters use careers@theathletic.com exclusively, and our team members will use an email address with @theathletic.com domain. We do not conduct interviews via text or instant message and we do not ask candidates to download software, to purchase equipment through us, or to provide sensitive personally identifiable information, such as bank accounts or social security numbers. If you have been contacted by someone claiming to be a member of the recruiting/HR team at The Athletic but operating from a different email address about a job offer, please report it as potential job fraud to the law enforcement and to people@theathletic.com_._