Design Intern – Design System

About the role:

Are you interested in solving meaningful problems and transforming the experiences of millions of constituents interacting with Massachusetts? We’re looking for a highly skilled, well-organized, and purpose driven Design System - Design Intern to join our Experience Design and Research team at the Massachusetts Digital Service (Mass Digital).

Our team strives to grow an actionable understanding of the people we serve, design & deliver transformative experiences and solutions, and accelerate human-centered innovation across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts government. We’re committed to inclusive, iterative human-centered design - guided by continuous experience research engagements with a diverse and representative set of Massachusetts government constituents. In this full-time role, you’ll play a critical role in evolving and enabling our Massachusetts Design System to support key initiatives within the Commonwealth Digital Roadmap and across the government.

You'll learn about how we are scaling and growing our design system. You'll help us create useful shared resources to support dozens of agencies who are using our design system to deliver and optimize essential services and digital solutions.

We strive to create a culture of belonging in Mass Digital. We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the Commonwealth and to celebrating our differences. All applicants and employees drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equal opportunity and fair treatment. We will recruit, hire, compensate, train and promote without regard to race, color, gender (identity and expression), sex, sexual orientation, creed, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, disability status, veteran’s status, or anything else that describes your identity as a human being.

This position is a full-time internship. The work schedule for this position is Monday through Friday, 9:00AM to 5:00PM EST, in a hybrid remote arrangement with 4-8 days per month spent at the primary work location: One Ashburton Place, Boston, Massachusetts 02108. Applicants should be located within reasonable commuting distance from the primary work location.

The Summer Internship Program is a 10-week paid opportunity running from June 1 through August 7. To be eligible, applicants must be currently enrolled in an accredited college or university or be a recent graduate (May 2026 graduation date).

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner with us to evolve, and maintain our design system libraries in Figma, ensuring components are accessible, consistent, and aligned with user needs and technical constraints.

• Assist with facilitation of the Design System Community of Practice, creating opportunities for knowledge sharing, feedback, and adoption across agency teams.

• Assist with onboarding new folks to the system and gathering insights to inform iterative improvements.

• Collaborate with our UX Engineer to ensure parity between design tokens, components, and front-end implementation.

• Assist as a design system advocate, driving adoption through demos, documentation, and support, while fostering a shared understanding of the system’s value and purpose.

• Represent Mass Digital in design system-related communities or external working groups, as appropriate.

Qualifications:

• 1-2 years of experience in product design or UI/UX design, with working knowledge of design systems.

• A portfolio demonstrating your recent experience and projects, including real world problem solving, system and visual design skills. · Strong knowledge of Figma features such as variables, component properties, auto layout, and file organization best practices.

• Excellent visual and interaction design skills.

• Strong communication and storytelling skills to advocate for system thinking and design cohesion across diverse teams.

• Nice to have: Understanding of front-end development (HTML, CSS, design tokens), with experience collaborating with engineers.

About EOTSS and the Massachusetts Digital Service:

The Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) is the state’s lead office for information technology. We provide enterprise level information technology services and infrastructure, including network management and security; computer operations; application hosting; desktop provisioning and management; and modern and responsive digital services to 40,000 internal stakeholders plus the residents, business owners and visitors to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Digital Service, a division of EOTSS, partners with organizations across state government to transform how residents, visitors, businesses, and government agencies interact with the Commonwealth. Our mission is to design and deliver accessible/inclusive, seamless, effective, and secure digitally enabled end-to-end experiences that adapt to a person’s needs, so that every time they engage with any part of their government, they're getting the most and best of the Commonwealth.

We’re focused on implementing a vision of statewide digital experiences that are more accessible, inclusive, streamlined, and secure: the Commonwealth Digital Roadmap. Our roadmap calls for transforming state services so that they meet the diverse needs of the people we serve. We’ll achieve this through initiatives to create a single identity and profile for users of Commonwealth services, expand and harmonize channels of communication, and improve people’s holistic journeys and integrated experiences across different state services. We are designing and developing new products and services, establishing new policies and standards, and building capacity within agencies. To make this vision a reality, we are expanding our Experience Design and Research Team.

An Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer. Females, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

The Commonwealth is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. Research suggests that qualified women, Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) may self-select out of opportunities if they don't meet 100% of the job requirements. We encourage individuals who believe they have the skills necessary to thrive to apply for this role.

First consideration will be given to those applicants that apply within the first 14 days.

Please see Preferred Qualifications.

Comprehensive Benefits

When you embark on a career with the Commonwealth, you are offered an outstanding suite of employee benefits that add to the overall value of your compensation package. We take pride in providing a work experience that supports you, your loved ones, and your future.

Want the specifics? Explore our Employee Benefits and Rewards!

An Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer.  Females, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

The Commonwealth is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law.  Research suggests that qualified women, Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) may self-select out of opportunities if they don't meet 100% of the job requirements.  We encourage individuals who believe they have the skills necessary to thrive to apply for this role.