Senior Staff Product Designer (R3040)

As a Senior Staff Product Designer at Shield AI, you'll be responsible for leading the user experience design for the Hivemind product line. This includes collaborating with technical leads to enhance their product designs, conducting user research to identify the needs of various user personas, and creating highly interactive documentation systems. Your role will be vital in ensuring that both the web portal and the toolsets for our users are intuitive and effective.

To qualify for the Senior Staff Product Designer position at Shield AI, candidates need a Master's degree in Design, Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a similar field. You should have at least 8 years of experience in product and user experience design, particularly in complex software environments. Familiarity with web technologies and experience with tools like React are also essential for this role.

The Senior Staff Product Designer plays a critical role at Shield AI by leading the design efforts for Hivemind. This includes enhancing the user experience for operators, test engineers, and AI engineers. You'll investigate competing products and synthesize findings to provide valuable insights to engineering and product leadership, ensuring our design optimally meets user needs.

The salary range for the Senior Staff Product Designer position at Shield AI is between $182,672 and $274,008 per year. The final compensation package may vary based on various factors such as experience, skill set, and work location. In addition to salary, the total package may also include bonuses, benefits, and equity.

At Shield AI, Senior Staff Product Designers can expect a dynamic, high-velocity work environment that encourages innovation and collaboration. You’ll work alongside an experienced team dedicated to leveraging advanced AI technology to solve complex problems in defense, with a culture that values diversity and equal opportunity.

When answering this question, structure your response to demonstrate your understanding of the design process—from research and ideation to prototyping and testing. Discuss how you incorporate user feedback at each step and emphasize your collaborative approach with technical leads and engineers, showcasing your versatility in designing complex software products.

Here, highlight your approach to conflict resolution. Explain how you would focus on data-driven discussions, empathizing with their perspectives while also advocating for user experience best practices. Talk about the importance of collaboration and openness to feedback in reaching a harmonious solution.

Mention strategies like conducting user research, interviews, and usability testing to gather insights. Discuss how you translate this data into actionable design improvements and validate your design choices against real user feedback to ensure the final product meets diverse needs.

Choose a relevant design project where you faced significant challenges. Detail your thought process, the steps you took to analyze the problem, and how you resolved it. Focus on your design impact and the skills you utilized, especially in a complex software environment.

Express your proficiency in collaborating with technical teams. Share experiences where you successfully interacted with developers and engineers, particularly in understanding their constraints while advocating for user-centric designs. Demonstrating your ability to bridge the gap between design and technology is key.

Outline principles such as usability, accessibility, and visual hierarchy. Share how you apply these to create intuitive and engaging user experiences. Provide specific examples of how these principles informed your design solutions in past projects.

Discuss your approach to continuous learning, whether through online courses, design conferences, or community engagement. Emphasize that keeping abreast of trends allows you to bring innovative ideas into your work and maintain relevance in fast-paced environments.

Highlight your familiarity with industry-standard design tools such as Figma, Sketch, or Adobe Creative Suite. Also, mention your experience with prototyping tools or collaboration software that assist in sharing your designs with the team, exemplifying your adaptability to various tools.

Here, share specific projects you've worked on that involved designing for autonomous systems or any highly complex software. Highlight the challenges faced within those projects and how your design directly improved user interaction and overall experience.

Express your enthusiasm for Shield AI’s mission and how it aligns with your own interests and experience. Talk about your excitement for working on innovative technologies and how you believe you can contribute to enhancing user experience in autonomous systems through your design expertise.