Industrial Design Engineer 3

Protingent; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 117,000 - 131,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

HDHP health plan

Education/certification reimbursement

Pre-tax commuter benefits

Paid Time Off (PTO)

Administered 401k plan

Job summary

Protingent Staffing seeks an Industrial Design Engineer 3 for a contract role in Sunnyvale, CA. You will lead XR/VR design efforts, prototype concepts, and translate user feedback into actionable requirements for Unity-based development.

The ideal candidate has 4+ years designing, prototyping, and shipping XR/VR products, a strong portfolio, and a track record of aligning design strategy with product direction while collaborating closely with developers and human factors teams.

Qualifications

• 4+ years designing, prototyping, and shipping XR/VR products.
• Portfolio showing XR design judgment and measurable usability improvements.
• Deliver incremental improvements while maintaining a cohesive long-term design strategy.
• Work closely with developers during design sprints to implement requirements.

Responsibilities

• Audit the VR application and user feedback to propose a holistic usability and learning strategy.
• Propose XR interaction designs informed by best practices, risks, and feedback while balancing constraints.
• Rapidly produce design concepts (flows, sketches, prototypes) and translate to actionable Unity requirements.
• Lead design reviews, communicate rationale, and drive decisions with product, HF engineering, and dev teams.
• Collaborate with Human Factors to convert risks into practical design requirements.
• Refine XR interactions for ease of learning by novices.

Skills

XR design

Prototyping

Usability design

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Interaction Design, HCI, Industrial Design, or related field

Tools

Unity

Job description

Industrial Design Engineer 3

Position Description: Protingent Staffing has an exciting contract Industrial Design Engineer 3 with our client located in Sunnyvale, CA.

Job Responsibilities

• Audit the current VR application and accumulated user feedback; recommend a holistic strategy to improve usability, cohesiveness, and learning outcomes while retaining the application's core direction
• Propose interaction designs informed by XR best practices, usability risks, and customer feedback while balancing hardware constraints, timelines, and development effort
• Rapidly produce design concepts (user flows, sketches, prototypes) from product requirements and mature them into functional requirements the development team can implement in Unity
• Facilitate design reviews; communicate design rationale and trade-offs clearly; incorporate input from product management, human factors engineering, and development; drive decisions toward implementation
• Collaborate with Human Factors to convert identified usability risks and findings into practical, implementable design requirements
• Design or refine XR interactions that are easy to learn for novice XR users
• Establish and maintain a design repository documenting XR interaction best practices, human factors heuristics, and product-specific visual and interaction designs.

Job Qualifications

• 4+ years of hands-on experience designing, prototyping, and shipping XR/VR products
• Portfolio demonstrating strong XR design judgment with shipped products and measurable usability improvements
• Track record of delivering incremental improvements within an established product direction while maintaining a cohesive long-term design strategy
• Demonstrated ability to work shoulder-to-shoulder with developers during design sprints to implement functional requirements
• Required Education and Training: Bachelor's degree in Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Industrial Design, or related field - or equivalent professional experience.
• Nice To Have: Experience designing XR training or simulation content
• Proficiency with Unity or similar real-time 3D engines
• Experience in medical device, healthcare, or learning and development
• Familiarity with surgical robotics or the products
• Experience applying human factors engineering principles to product design
• Background in user research or usability testing methodologies.

Job Details

Job Type: Contract

Pay rate: $85- $95 an hour

Location: Sunnyvale, CA.

Benefits Package: Protingent offers competitive salaries, insurance plan options (HDHP plan or POS plan), education/certification reimbursement, pre-tax commuter benefits, Paid Time Off (PTO) and an administered 401k plan.

About Protingent: Protingent is an Award-Winning provider of top-tier Engineering and IT talent, trusted by companies at the forefront of innovation - from Software and Aerospace to AI, Clean Tech, Medical Devices, and Connected Technologies. We’re passionate about making a positive impact by connecting exceptional talent with meaningful opportunities and helping our clients build the future.