Design Research Intern
Rabobank
Design Research Intern
Rabobank
Cooperative bank offering retail, wholesale services
Want to become the best version of yourself? At Rabobank you work on your personal development and contribute to the world around you. You get to focus on your own growth in an environment in which you continue to learn. In addition, you can also expect:
An internship allowance of EUR 600 gross per month based on a 36-hour week.
Personal guidance
A professional working and learning environment
An internship community and inspiring events
Would you like to use your master's research to help Rabobank define and assess the quality of its digital platform at scale?
As a graduation intern in the Digital Platform team in Utrecht, you will research how platform quality can be defined and assessed consistently. Your work will help teams make better-informed decisions about improvements, exceptions and prioritisation.
You will work from our Croeselaan office in Utrecht, and hybrid working is possible. You will join a team of 9 people within a design chapter of around 120 professionals. Your research will combine UX research, service design and systems thinking to develop practical approaches for assessing platform quality. Your intended outcomes are platform quality principles, a scalable assessment approach, a prioritisation model and an approach for how AI and automation could enable quality assessment at scale.
Rabobank's digital platform provides foundations that are used across its digital experience. Maintaining quality at that scale requires more than deciding whether an individual design is good or bad.. Teams need a scalable way to assess platform quality, and make consistent decisions about what to improve, when exceptions are justified and what should be prioritised.
Your central research question will be: How might we define and continuously assess platform quality at scale, using AI and automation to reduce manual effort and support consistent decision-making?
During your graduation internship, you will learn how to approach this challenge within a large digital organisation. You will:
Your research is internally focused. You will mainly conduct research with designers and potentially colleagues from relevant tribes.
The assignment combines design research, systems thinking, design strategy and framework development.
For us, your development and that of society go hand in hand. That is why we want to invest in you and work together to create a better world. We summarise this in one sentence: at Rabobank, you work on yourself and the world around you at the same time.
You will develop your research and strategic design skills by working on a complex challenge with direct relevance to Rabobank's digital organisation. You will learn how to look beyond individual design decisions and take a systems perspective on platform quality.
You will gain experience translating research into principles, assessment criteria and prioritisation approaches that can be applied in practice. You will also explore how AI and automation could enable quality assessment at scale, while considering where human judgement remains important.
At Rabobank, we are working towards a culture where everyone feels welcome. We value our differences and use them to collaborate more effectively and make better decisions. By being open to different perspectives, we create an environment where colleagues feel heard.
For this graduation internship, we are looking for a master's student who is interested in research, complex design systems and strategic design challenges. You do not need extensive professional experience. Relevant experience can come from your studies, research projects, internships or other practical projects.
Must-haves
Relevant master's programmes include Interaction Design, Service Design, Strategic Design, Design Research and Industrial Design or Industrial Design Engineering, or another related design-focused master's programme.
Nice-to-haves
You do not need specific user interface design tools such as Figma for this assignment. The focus is on research, systems thinking, strategy and framework development rather than UI design.
Is this role suitable if I have little work experience?
Yes. This is a graduation internship for a master's student. Relevant experience with design thinking and user research can come from your studies, research projects, internships or other practical experience.
What will I learn and do?
You will learn how to research digital design quality in a large design organisation. You will investigate what quality means to designers and translate your findings into a scalable approach for assessing quality, exploring how AI and automation could reduce manual effort.
What guidance will I receive?
You will work within the 9-person Digital Platform team, with Ilgaz Gulgec as your main contact. You can conduct your internal research within a wider design chapter of around 120 professionals from different design disciplines.
Which skills or tools will I develop?
You will work with design thinking, user research, service design and research strategy, while exploring AI, automation and prototyping approaches for assessing platform quality. You may also explore AI literacy and prompt design in relation to possible future automation.
Can I work hybrid?
Yes. Hybrid working is possible. Your office location is Rabobank's Croeselaan office in Utrecht.
Rabobank is a Dutch cooperative bank owned by its members, serving individuals and businesses through local branches and digital channels. It provides payment accounts, savings, mortgages, business lending, insurance, and wealth management domestically via its app, website, and branches. Internationally, its Wholesale & Rural division finances the food and agriculture value chain with lending, trade and commodity finance, markets services, and sector analysis, while DLL offers vendor finance and leasing to equipment makers and their dealers. It earns mostly from interest on loans and mortgages plus fees, and aims to support people, businesses, and communities—especially in farming and food sectors—through tailored financial services under member governance.
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