Intellectual Property and Research Intern

Intellectual Property and Research Intern

Requisition ID: 24767

Country: United States of America

Location type: Hybrid (3 days / week in office)

State / Province: Illinois

City: Chicago

Application Deadline: 15 March 2026

About Us

Korn Ferry is a global consulting firm that powers performance. We unlock the potential in your people and unleash transformation across your business - synchronizing strategy, operations, and talent to accelerate performance, fuel growth, and inspire a legacy of change. That’s why the world’s most forward-thinking companies across every major industry turn to us - for a shared commitment to lasting impact and the bold ambition to Be More Than.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, our over 9,000 colleagues globally serve clients in more than 50 countries. We offer five core capabilities that span the full talent lifecycle:

• Organizational Strategy
• Assessment and Succession
• Talent Acquisition
• Leadership Development
• Rewards and Benefits

Job description

OPPORTUNITY TO ENHANCE YOUR CAREER - It’s about exceeding your potential.

This position sits within the Korn Ferry Institute (KFI), an innovation center for Korn Ferry focused on illuminating key trends and drivers of human and organizational performance. KFI develops robust scientific research, cutting-edge intellectual property, and state-of-the-art analytics that are infused into Korn Ferry solutions. We provide unparalleled insights, thought leadership, research, data, and expertise. Our work enables individuals, teams, and organizations to make better-informed decisions to thrive in the new economy and to exceed their potential on their journey to greatness.

KFI is a highly agile, matrixed organization with dozens of projects active at any one time, many of which are strategic and high priority. The KFI includes professionals from diverse disciplines including industrial/organizational, quantitative, and educational psychology; sociology; neuroscience; and data science. As such, this role may require collaboration across research, thought leadership, data, analytics, IP, and measurement areas, and projects may involve multiple cross-functional stakeholders.

Our new 10-week global internship program is part of Korn Ferry Launch, which is an early-career development program created to give interns and recent graduates a head start in their professional life. It’s an invaluable learning experience that could be the fast track to a rewarding long-term career at Korn Ferry.

As an intern you’ll be given plenty of opportunity to make an impact here. In fact, you’ll be welcomed as a valued member of the team, and you’ll be working on real projects, alongside senior Korn Ferry Institute team members. Your assignments might include things like market mapping, analyzing data or even attending research homeroom meetings - professional experiences that will look great on your resume.

We’ll offer you plenty of support and guidance while you’re here, as well as practical training and development. This internship will help you learn the business and people skills you need to succeed in the workplace and give you the chance to start building your professional network.

Your time at Korn Ferry will help you discover where your professional strengths and interests lie and might help you decide on a future career path. Many of our interns go on to join our New Grad Program after graduation, and we hope they will stay with us as their careers continue to develop.

The Korn Ferry Global Internship Program is open to rising juniors and seniors from any academic major, as well as candidates earning post graduate degrees.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The Korn Ferry Institute optimizes the success of people, teams, and organizations. We do this by empowering Korn Ferry to deliver the highest client value through research-based insights, innovative research, IP development, and leading-edge data analytics.

Key Responsibilities for this Internship Include:

Support the application of predictive analytics to organizational and company data to strengthen insights and decision support, helping connect KF services to meaningful business outcomes. Assist with data preparation, feature development, model testing, and translating analytical results into clear, business-relevant insights aligned with Korn Ferry intellectual property.

Internship Project: Predictive Analytics for KF Services through Organizational Success Profiles, Sales Companion, and Outcomes Research Study

• Analyze organizational and company-level data used in Organizational Success Profiles, Sales Companion, and Outcomes research to identify patterns, drivers, and predictive signals linked to business outcomes.
• Develop and test predictive models that connect organizational characteristics, strategic focus areas, and KPIs to client-relevant outcomes, supporting more targeted insights and recommendations.
• Engineer and refine features aligned to Korn Ferry IP, translating raw company, financial, and organizational data into meaningful analytical inputs.
• Interpret and communicate model results to inform product insights, sales conversations, and decision support, ensuring outputs are understandable, defensible, and outcome-focused.

Qualifications:

• Currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Data Science, Analytics, Statistics, Computer Science, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Economics, or a related quantitative field
• Strong foundation in predictive modeling techniques
• Understanding of model evaluation and interpretation, including accuracy, precision/recall, feature importance, and limitations
• Proficiency in R for data analysis and modeling
• Experience working with structured and semi-structured data, including:
• Company, financial, operational, or organizational datasets
• Data cleaning, feature engineering, and validation
• Ability to translate analytical outputs into business-relevant insights
• Strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills, with the ability to work on open-ended, exploratory problems

Why Join Korn Ferry?

This internship offers a unique opportunity to contribute to Korn Ferry’s industry-leading intellectual property while building skills in research, data analysis, and competency modeling. You'll work alongside experts, gain insights into leadership development and assessment practices, and make a real impact on innovative solutions shaping organizational success.

Estimated hourly rate

20.00 USD - 25.00

Salary range represents the compensation Korn Ferry expects to pay to a candidate with the requirements for the job posted. Korn Ferry offers competitive compensation and benefits commensurate with experience.

Korn Ferry may use AI as part of its recruitment process, but all hiring decisions are made by humans.

Korn Ferry Benefits

The Korn Ferry Cares Wellbeing Platform offers Employees health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, Short Term Disability, Basic Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment), Critical Illness, Accident Injury, Hospital Indemnity, and Legal Insurance. Employees are eligible to enroll in Korn Ferry's Tax Deferred Savings plan 401(k). Employee Stock Purchase Program is available to all permanent employees who work 20 hours or more after 6 months of service.

Employees are eligible to receive a total of 15 days vacation annually plus paid time off for 16 company holidays. Full time eligible employees will accrue sick time commencing on the first date of employment at the rate of 3.33 hours per pay period for an annualized maximum of 80 hours.

Internal Mobility at Korn Ferry

If you currently work for Korn Ferry or one of our affiliates, you must be eligible to apply for a different position within Korn Ferry to use the Careers Site. If you accept such a position, your benefits programs and Human Resources policies may change. Please consult with your HR contact for the new position concerning application eligibility, including any immigration/visa needs, benefit programs, and HR policies applicable to that position.

Korn Ferry is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Background Check Disclaimer

The successful candidate will need to complete background checks as part of our recruitment process, this may include criminal, education credentials, employment history, and other background information relevant to your employment qualifications