Interaction Designer: Real-World Robot Prototyper

ART Lab; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founding team opportunity

World-class team

Advisor guidance

Job summary

ART Lab in the San Francisco Bay Area is seeking an interaction designer who builds with their hands. You will shape people’s experience with our robots, prototyping physical, spatial, and screen-based interactions and using AI tools to ship working prototypes.

You’ll work directly with the founding team to craft moment-to-moment interactions, motion, timing, and personality. The role starts as a short-term contract with intent to convert to full-time, in-person collaboration is essential.

Qualifications

• 1–5 years designing interactions, products, or experiences with a shipped/built portfolio.
• Fluent with AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini) and prototyping on your own.
• Real-world prototyper who builds physical, spatial, or improvised prototypes.
• Strong instincts for interaction, motion, and feel (timing ~100ms).
• Clever, curious, and fun to work with; collaboration across hardware, robotics, and ML teams.

Responsibilities

• Prototype in the real world with hardware to test interactions on actual devices.
• Prototype on screen using flows, states, and motion in Figma or code.
• Use AI tools to ship working prototypes without dependence on others.
• Design the feel of human-robot interaction, including motion, timing, and behavior.
• Turn open questions into testable bets and run live tests with real users.
• Collaborate across hardware, robotics, and ML engineers to unify the user experience.

Skills

Interaction design

Prototyping

AI coding agents

Motion design

Team collaboration

Tools

Figma

Front-end coding

p5

TouchDesigner

openFrameworks

Arduino

Raspberry Pi

Job description

ART Lab in the San Francisco Bay Area is seeking an interaction designer who builds with their hands. You will shape people’s experience with our robots, prototyping physical, spatial, and screen-based interactions and using AI tools to ship working prototypes.

You’ll work directly with the founding team to craft moment-to-moment interactions, motion, timing, and personality. The role starts as a short-term contract with intent to convert to full-time, in-person collaboration is essential.