Senior Staff Designer (R4320)
Shield AI
Design
San Diego, CA, USA
USD 190k-289,997 / year + Equity
Posted on Jan 7, 2026
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include the V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, Hivemind Enterprise, and the Hivemind Vision product lines. With nine offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. Follow Shield AI on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and YouTube.
Job Description:
The Staff/Sr. Staff Product Designer role within Shield AI’s Hivemind organization is 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:
- Lead end-to-end design for high-impact product areas, from strategy and concept to final implementation.
- Drive and uphold design quality through strong ideation, systems thinking, and refinement of shared design standards.
- Partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Customer Experience to define product direction and user needs.
- Facilitate design strategy workshops and collaboration to drive alignment and momentum.
- Influence cross-functional planning, roadmap prioritization, and long-term product vision through design shaping rituals.
- Advocate for the user experience in company-wide discussions; help shape how product success is defined.
- Mentor other designers through feedback, partnering and thought leadership.
- Lead design reviews to collect feedback from engineering, product and customer surrogates, and align features and capabilities
Required qualifications:
- Master’s in design, HCI, or demonstrated work experience at a comparable level of expertise.
- 8+ years of professional experience in product/UX design with a track record of shipped, user-facing products.
- A portfolio demonstrating exceptional interaction design.
- Expertise with modern design tools (Figma, ProtoPie, etc.) and workflows (design systems, component libraries).
- Experience leading product initiatives end-to-end - from exploration to final implementation.
- Strong systems thinking and the ability to scale and improve design frameworks.
- Excellent communication skills, able to clearly present design rationale to non-design stakeholders.
Preferred qualifications:
- Prior experience in a Principal or Staff-level design role at a product-led company.
- Background in designing enterprise software, platforms.
- Experience designing developer-facing software tools.
- Familiarity with geospatial interfaces and complex data visualization or analysis workflows.
- Experience contributing to design systems and iterating with prototypes, A/B testing, or data-informed workflows.
- Passion for mentoring others and cultivating design team culture and process.
- Experience with automation, autonomy, self-driving, robotics, aerospace, aviation
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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.
190000 - 289997 USD a year