The posting
A Career at HARMAN
As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do every day.
Introduction: A Career at HARMAN Lifestyle
We’re a global, multi-disciplinary team that’s putting the innovative power of technology to work and transforming tomorrow. As a member of HARMAN Lifestyle, you connect consumers with the power of superior sound.
- Contribute your talents to high-end, esteemed brands like JBL, Mark Levinson, Roon, Revel, Denon, and Bowers & Wilkins
- Unite your passion for audio innovation with high-tech product development
- Create pitch-perfect, cutting-edge technology that elevates the listening experience
About the Role
HARMAN's Software Experiences Business Unit (SEBU) builds software products that connect people to music. Our portfolio includes Roon, the leading music library management and playback platform for audiophiles, alongside new music products currently in development.
In this role you will help our product teams understand the people we build for. You will run competitive and user research across music discovery, streaming, and short-form content, sit inside the day-to-day work of a product team, and bring back the language, habits, and unmet needs of a younger audience in a form the team can act on.
This is a paid internship, and you will work as a member of the team rather than an observer. Length of the internship is dependent on when your new hire onboarding happens, but a typical program is 12-weeks. You will join standups and reviews, own your own research threads, and present what you learn directly to the people making product decisions.
How You'll Make An Impact
- Work as an embedded member of the team: join standups, design and product marketing discussions and product reviews, and contribute ideas as a working member of the group.
- Track and analyze competitors and adjacent products to identify feature gaps, emerging trends, and unmet needs in the category.
- Maintain a competitive tracker the team can use week-to-week, covering feature releases, notable launches, and shifts in how competitors position themselves.
- Recruit and interview users in the 16 to 25 age range, with support from the product and marketing teams, to surface authentic language, listening habits, and unmet needs around music discovery and sharing.
- Support structured usability and concept testing on new features and prototypes: help run sessions, capture qualitative and quantitative feedback, and turn it into concrete recommendations the team can act on within a development sprint.
- Investigate how the target audience responds to curation and algorithmic recommendation, and feed what you find into feed and curation discussions.
- Study visual and interaction trends across music, social, and related apps, and share what you find so our product and design teams stay current with what feels credible to a Gen Z audience.
- Listen to public conversation about products in our category across Reddit, Discord, TikTok comments, and app store reviews, and flag the themes worth the team’s attention.
- Support user feedback programs alongside the community and R&D teams: help draft survey questions, track incoming feedback and bug reports, and keep a running log of recurring themes.
- Keep the research repository usable: tag and organize interview notes, clips, and findings so the team can still find them after the internship ends.
- Summarize findings regularly into short internal documents the team can act on week to week, and deliver a final write-up and presentation pulling together the full 12 weeks of insight.
- Own one self-directed project: define a question about the product with your manager, run the research, and present your recommendation to the team.
What Makes You A Strong Fit
- Must be currently enrolled in a Bachelor's Degree program or higher at an accredited institution having completed your Sophomore year or later, taking at least one class in the semester/quarter before participation in the internship program, and returning to school for at least one semester upon completion of the internship program
- Must have a cumulative 3.0 GPA
- Preferred degree program in business, marketing, design, human-computer interaction, communications, music business, or a related field.
- Genuine curiosity about consumer products and how people find, share, and talk about music.
- Strong written communication: able to turn messy notes into a short, clear document that someone else can act on without a walkthrough.
- Comfort talking to people you do not know, running an interview, and asking the follow-up question rather than accepting the first answer.
- Organized and self-directed, able to manage several research threads at once with light supervision in a remote environment.
- Comfortable working with survey results and simple data sets, and willing to report what the findings actually show, including when they are inconvenient.
- Hands-on familiarity, as a user, with the platforms where music culture happens, including TikTok, Instagram, Discord, Reddit, and the major streaming services.
- Discretion with confidential product, partner, and roadmap information.
Bonus Points if You Have
- Prior internship, coursework, or project experience in user research, product management, marketing, or design.
- Practical exposure to research methods such as interviews, surveys, or usability testing.
- Experience building an audience or creating content on a social platform, or moderating an online community.
- Working knowledge of tools such as Figma, Notion, and survey or analytics platforms.
- Fluency with AI tools and a habit of using them to work faster and better: synthesizing interview notes, drafting research summaries, and speeding up desk research.
- A personal stake in music: musician, DJ, playlist curator, writer, or active participant in a scene.
Things To Know
- This role allows for remote work and a candidate can be located anywhere in the United States.
- This position allows for up to 20 hours per week, constituting a Part-Time Internship. Flexibility for more working hours is at the discretion and ability of the business unit.
- Successfully complete a background investigation and drug screen as a condition of employment (post-offer).
What You Can Expect
- Access to employee discounts on HARMAN and Samsung products (including JBL, Harman / Kardon, AKG, and others)
- Learning and development opportunities through our award-winning HARMAN University programs
- Wellness benefits designed to support your overall well-being
- An inclusive and diverse work environment that supports both your professional and personal development
Pay Transparency
Freshman: $19.00 Sophomore: $21.00 Junior: $23.00 Senior: $24.00 Master: $28.00
Dependent on the internship offered, pay is based on factors, including without limitation, the applicant's level of education and business need.
Benefits
HARMAN is interested in your health and wellbeing and offers benefits designed to support your wellbeing. Benefits and perks may vary depending on the nature of your relationship with HARMAN, and may include paid sick leave and medical benefits.
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HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
