Staff Product Designer, Visual Design and Design Systems (R3390)
Shield AI
Product, Design
San Diego, CA, USA · San Diego, CA, USA · New York, USA
Posted on Apr 18, 2025
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed defense technology company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent, autonomous systems. Its products include Hivemind Enterprise—EdgeOS, Pilot, Commander, and Forge—as well as V-BAT and Sentient Vision Systems (wide-area motion imaging software). With offices in San Diego, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kyiv (Ukraine), and Melbourne (Australia), Shield AI’s technology actively supports U.S. and allied operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X and Instagram.
The Product Designer roles within Shield AI’s Hivemind organization are responsible for solving complex User Experience and Product Design problems associated with the end-to-end user experience of developing, deploying, testing and evaluating autonomy solutions. The core products developed by the Hivemind organization target multiple user personae, ranging from the external end-user (the “Operator” of autonomous systems), to the Test engineer (who tests and evaluates autonomous systems in software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop and real-world flight test environments), to the AI engineer (who develops and tests autonomy architectures). Significant portions of the product are are best described as developer facing software product (i.e. SDKs, CLIs) and require contribution from designers that have relevant experience. Other portions of the product leverage web technologies and UIs to support configuration management, scenario design, mission planning, mission rehearsal, debrief, and test and evaluation process. The supported workflows with these products range from the highly visual/experiential experience of the operator using a ground-control-station (GCS) client to mission plan and command-and-control, to autonomy engineers working within the Integrated Development Environment, to Test Engineers using the web portal and extensible CLI tool. As such, Hivemind is a highly complex and technical product that enables complex workflows across multiple collaborating teams.
What You'll Do:
- Design elegant, intuitive user interfaces that bring clarity to complex workflows, balancing visual craft with deep attention to usability, consistency, and accessibility
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams—including product managers, engineers, and domain experts—to translate technical requirements into customer-facing UI that supports real-world autonomy operations
- Create high-fidelity designs, UI specs, and design artifacts that clearly communicate intent and support rapid iteration across multi-disciplinary teams
- Own and evolve the design system to support consistency, scalability, and high visual polish across a suite of products, ensuring it meets the needs of both designers and engineers
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in UX/UI design and 5+ years of experience in product design for UX/UI-driven software environments
- Proven track record designing high-quality, scalable design systems that make complex technical products intuitive and usable for engineers, operators, and other specialized users
- Demonstrated experience designing web-based applications and products with attention to scalability, usability, and performance
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience designing UX for autonomous systems and AI tools, with a focus on workflows for control, monitoring, and evaluation
- Applied game design principles to enhance interactivity and user feedback in mission planning and control environments
- Designed intuitive low-code/no-code platforms enabling technical users to configure and test complex systems without programming
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Full-time regular employee offer package:
Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
Temporary employee offer package:
Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)
Salary 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 and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.
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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.