On - Intern – Product Archive & Collections - Zürich

Team for Career Site

Product Design

In short

Whether you’re looking to jump start your career or gain first hands-on experience in a new field, an internship at On offers you a unique growth experience, the chance to make an impact from day 1 and contribute to On’s growth journey. We are looking for fresh ideas, curious minds and passionate individuals ready to make a difference. Our internships generally last 6 months and you will be fully embedded in a team.

– Start date: September 1st 2025
– Duration: 6 months
– Prerequisite: Interest in area relevant to the internship, passion for On, right to work in EU / Switzerland
– Note: This is a paid internship
– If you don’t meet the criteria above, unfortunately, we cannot move forward with your application. Please be truthful in your answers, the recruiter reviewing your application will appreciate your honesty.

We’re transforming fifteen years of boundary-pushing footwear, apparel and accessories into a living archive that fuels tomorrow’s design.

During your six-month internship you’ll rotate through physical, digital and storytelling workstreams, gaining a 360° view of how a fast-growing sports brand preserves — and re-activates — its product heritage. As part of a tight, hands-on team you will:
– Bring the archive to life across footwear, apparel, accessories, colour & material and innovation
– Translate stories from our world-class athletes and communities into narratives that inspire future collections.
– Act as the bridge between the archive and product teams — welcoming visitors, barcoding shoes, refining metadata or curating the physical space.

If modern object archiving excites you, you thrive in a fast-paced, design-driven environment, and are eager to gain valuable experience in the sports industry, this internship is the perfect opportunity for you to kickstart your career.

Your mission

– Inventory & documentation: Accession, photograph and describe incoming samples; generate barcodes and apply controlled vocabulary in our Admin Panel.
– Digitisation & data: Batch-upload images and metadata, run consistency checks, and refine + prep datasets for migration to our new digital platform.
– Sample-workflow guardian: Serve as the go-to contact for teams borrowing or returning items; track movements and maintain the “chain of custody”.
– Facility fit-out: Help test object housings, optimise shelving layouts and monitor climate data for the new archive space.
– Curation & storytelling: Surface hero objects for exhibitions, draft object blurbs and timelines, build mood boards and support internal comms.
– Research & reporting: Answer archive queries, compile usage stats and flag data patterns that can spark future briefs.
– Explore and innovate: Use our facilities to develop a mini project of your own – present it to the Design Studio at the end of the internship.

Your story

– You are enrolled in, or have recently graduated from, Museology, Archival Science, Library & Information Science, Museum Studies, Fashion Studies or a related field.
– You work confidently with a collection-management or DAM system, and you are an Excel/Sheets power-user.
– You handle textiles, footwear and accessories with care, bringing basic preventive-conservation know-how.
– You think in systems—detail-oriented and self-driven, you keep projects moving.
– You have a strong interest in footwear & fashion; experience in exhibition design or copy-writing is a plus.
– You communicate clearly, stick to deadlines and stay organised; you are fluent in English, written and spoken.
– You bring an entrepreneurial attitude, a hunger to learn and the courage to tackle new challenges.
– You possess an explorative mind coupled with excellent presentation skills that engage diverse audiences.
– You can safely lift up to 15 kg archive boxes—those shoes add up!

Meet the team

You’ll report directly to the Chief of Staff, Design Studio. The studio drives all of On’s disruptive product design – footwear, apparel, accessories, design direction and innovation. Designers collaborate daily with developers, product managers, innovation and go-to-market teams, making the Archive team the connective tissue that keeps our product history actionable and inspiring.