Product Operations and Support Strategy Internship - Fall 2026

A thriving, mission-driven multimedia organization, NPR produces award-winning news, information, and music programming in partnership with hundreds of independent public radio stations across the nation. The NPR audience values information, creativity, curiosity, and social responsibility – and our employees do too. We are innovators and leaders in diverse fields, from journalism and digital media to IT and development. Every day, our employees and member stations touch the lives of millions worldwide. 

Across our organization, we’re building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success. We are committed to doing the right thing in our journalism and in every role at NPR. This means that integrity, adherence to our ethical standards, and compliance with legal obligations are fundamental responsibilities for every employee at NPR.

Application Instructions: Applications close on Sunday, June 14th at 11:59 pm ET.

Are you a future product leader who loves solving puzzles and hates clunky user experiences? We’re looking for a curious, data-loving intern to help us dig into why user issues happen—and then figure out how to design them away! In this role, you’ll dive into our support ecosystem, turn raw customer feedback into gold, and help us transition from "fixing problems" to "preventing them entirely." You'll engage with teams across the organization  and learn how to pitch real product features and automated solutions.  If you're ready to build a serious Product Management toolkit while making our product cooler and easier to use, let’s talk!

• →Learn Operational Tools & Understand User Workflows: Gain proficiency in core customer support platforms and shadow front-line teams to understand user issues and business processes.
• →Study End-to-End User Journeys: Learn how to document the complete lifecycle of a user issue from submission to resolution to identify systemic gaps and key internal touchpoints.
• →Learn to Drive Cross-Functional Alignment: Practice conducting informational interviews and building relationships with Engineering, UX, and Content teams to gather diverse technical and design insights.
• →Develop Skills in Data-Driven Problem Identification: Learn how to analyze customer support datasets and implement tracking strategies to isolate high-friction product vulnerabilities and recurring user pain points.
• →Learn Data-Driven Prioritization: Understand how to rank identified issues based on severity, frequency, and business impact to determine which problems require immediate product or engineering intervention.
• →Learn to Build Scalable Self-Service Solutions: Practice drafting and publishing accessible help documentation and troubleshooting guides to optimize the self-service user experience.
• →Learn to Design Product Improvement Proposals: Gain experience creating comprehensive feature or automation proposals—such as optimized workflows, form redesigns, or UI enhancements—to systematically eliminate user friction.

• Customer Service Experience: Previous retail or food service jobs are actually very relevant. It proves you can handle "de-escalation" and high-pressure environments.
• Basic Troubleshooting: Knowledge of how to use browser developer tools (Inspect Element), clear caches, or identify console errors.
• Analytical Mindset: You possess a natural curiosity and genuinely enjoy digging into 'messy', unstructured data sets to discover meaningful patterns, root causes, and operational trends.
• Clear & Empathetic Communicator: You have an excellent ability to translate complex, highly technical software bugs or workflows into simple, intuitive, and human-friendly step-by-step instructions.
• Aspiring Product Leader: You aren't just looking to process support queues or clear backlogs—you want to understand the foundational root causes behind why issues happen and design permanent product solutions.
• Ticketing Systems: exposure to tools like Zendesk, Jira, or Salesforce

• Resume 
• Cover Letter

• Must be a current student in an accredited degree program or a recent graduate of no more than 12 months from the month of the start of the internship.

You may read NPR’s privacy policy to learn about how NPR may handle information you submit with any application.

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