Senior UX Product Designer (R2527)

Introduction to Shield AI

Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company whose mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. In pursuit of this mission, Shield AI is building the world’s best AI pilot. Its AI pilot, Hivemind, has flown a fighter jet (F-16), a vertical takeoff and landing drone (V-BAT), and a quadcopter (Nova). The company has offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington DC and abroad. Shield AI’s products and people are currently in the field actively supporting operations with the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. allies. 

The Senior Product Designer role at Shield AI is crucial to solving complex User Experience and Product Design problems associated with command and control of autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Building products that enable, empower and scale human operators, your work will result in direct mission impact while ensuring safe and successful mission planning, rehearsal, execution, and debrief. 

In this role, reporting into the Head of Product Design and Research, you will help drive design strategy and own execution of key products and initiatives related to human-robot collaboration. You will work alongside engineers, product managers, technical directors, researchers and other designers, devoted to excellence, committed to collaboration, and focused on harnessing the power of AI to protect service members, first responders, and civilians.

An ideal candidate should have prior experience designing within the autonomy, gaming, or creative/engineering tooling spaces. They should aspire to be part of an industry-changing team developing autonomy for the defense space.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Design effective and elegant solutions to complex problems taking into account product requirements, user needs and engineering effort required.
• Be a go-to subject matter expert of parts of the product(s) within your scope to the rest of your team.
• Help drive cross-functional alignment through stakeholder interviews and workshops.
• Work across the entire design stack: journey maps, low fidelity sketches, high-fidelity visuals and dynamic interaction prototypes.
• Speak clearly to tradeoffs between design decisions.
• Hold the product experience to high standards ensuring that what gets released is built to design specifications.
• Prioritize progress over perfection, knowing when to reinvent the wheel and when to apply a proven design approach.
• Provide and seek feedback from other designers and non-designers to push the bar for quality.
• Stay organized, manage time effectively and prioritize work between multiple projects and deadlines.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• 5+ years of design experience as a distinguished individual contributor.
• Available online portfolio of past work demonstrating problem framing, problem solving and expert level visual design acumen.
• Ability to work efficiently, demonstrating bias for action in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.
• Track record of working within cross-functional teams, synthesizing feedback and input from Product Management and Engineering.
• Curiosity for autonomy, robotics and core machine learning concepts ranging from simple, binary supervised learning to the state-of-the-art in reinforcement learning.
• Web and tablet app design experience and deep understanding of each platform’s constraints.
• Experience presenting to senior leaders outside of design.
• Top notch level skills with design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Figjam, Lottie and Lucid.
• Understanding of the full software development lifecycle.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• BS/MS in Psychology, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical/Aerospace or another relevant field.

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Total package details:

Regular employee positions: Salary within range listed above + Bonus + Benefits + Equity (if applicable)

Temporary employee positions: Hourly within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

*Interns/Military Fellows/Part-time not eligible for bonus, benefits or equity

Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background check.

If you're interested in being part of our team, apply now! 

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.