Senior UX Designer

General Motors; Warren (MI); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation benefits

Travel up to 25%

Job summary

General Motors seeks a Robotics UX Designer to craft intuitive, safe interfaces for robotic systems and automation workflows across HMIs and configuration tools. You will partner with robotics and controls engineers to translate operator needs into actionable, trustworthy designs.

This hybrid role requires hands-on prototyping, validation with field feedback, and involvement from concept through delivery. You’ll contribute to design systems for robotics tools and help operators monitor,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in HCI/ID.
• Portfolio showing UX work on robotics/industrial domains.
• Typically 3–5+ years of UX/Product Design experience, with 1–2 years in robotics/industrial automation.

Responsibilities

• Research, visual and hardware design in robotics environments.
• Map end-to-end workflows for cell bring-up, program changes, fault recovery and maintenance.
• Design interfaces and interaction patterns for robot configuration and control.
• Monitor system status, alarms and safety considerations.
• Collaborate with robotics, controls, and software engineers to translate capabilities into usable designs.
• Prototype interactions with screen-based or simulator-based tools and validate with field feedback.
• Contribute to design systems for robotics tools and ensure coherence across tools.

Skills

UX design

Interaction design

Information architecture

Prototyping tools

Figma

Sketch

Adobe XD

Robotics familiarity

Communication skills

Workflow modeling

Collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in HCI / Interaction Design / Industrial Design or related field

Tools

Figma

Sketch

Adobe XD

Job description

Role Overview

At General Motors, our product teams are redefining mobility through a human-centered design process. We create vehicles and experiences designed to be felt, turning today’s impossible into tomorrow’s standard across hardware, battery systems, software, and safety features.

Every day, our products move millions of people as we aim to make driving safer, smarter, and more connected, shaping the future of transportation on a global scale.

Robotics UX Designer

The Robotics UX Designer is responsible for crafting intuitive, safe, and efficient user experiences for robotic systems and automation workflows. This role focuses on how humans monitor, control, configure, and collaborate with robots across digital interfaces (e.g., HMIs, dashboards, configuration tools) and where relevant, physical touchpoints (e.g., teach pendants, safety panels).

Work closely with robotics engineers, controls engineers, product managers, safety experts, and operations stakeholders to understand operator needs, task flows, and constraints on the plant floor or in lab environments. Translate insights into user journeys, workflows, and interface designs that make complex robotic capabilities understandable, controllable, and trustworthy.

What You’ll Do

• Research, Visual/Hardware Design
  • Evaluate design options in robotics environments.
  • Map end-to-end workflows for tasks like cell bring‑up, program changes, fault recovery, and maintenance.
  • Identify and prioritize usability, safety, and cognitive load issues in existing robotics tools and HMIs.
• Human–robot interaction (HRI) & experience design
  • Design interfaces, flows, and interaction patterns that enable quick configuration and calibration of robots and cells.
  • Monitor system status, performance, and alarms.
  • Diagnose and recover from faults safely.
  • Coordinate robots with other automation (conveyors, tooling, vision systems, AGVs, etc.).
  • Define how information is prioritized, surfaced, evaluated, and acted upon to support safe decisions under pressure.
  • Recommend designs that enhance ergonomics, situational awareness, and operator mental models, especially in high‑consequence or time‑critical situations.
• Safety, reliability, and constraints
  • Collaborate with safety and engineering teams to incorporate safety standards, operating envelopes, and lockout/tagout requirements into UX flows.
  • Design interactions that increase performance, reduce error probability, clarify system state, and support safe recovery when mistakes occur.Balance ideal UX solutions with constraints of real‑time systems, hardware capabilities, and existing industrial standards.
• Collaboration with robotics & controls engineering
  • Partner with robotics, controls, and software engineers to translate system capabilities into usable interaction models.
  • Provide design specifications, flows, and prototypes for robot and cell configuration tools, diagnostic and monitoring dashboards, simulation/virtual commissioning tools, and operator HMIs.
  • Participate in design and implementation reviews to ensure intended experience and safety behaviors are maintained through delivery.
• Prototyping and validation
  • Build interactive prototypes (screen‑based and/or using simulators or digital twins) to explore concepts and validate workflows before deployment.
  • Use test findings, field feedback, and operational data to iterate and improve designs post‑deployment.
  • Inform in‑field instrumentation investments to enable continuous improvement and drive AI models.
• Design systems for robotics tools
  • Contribute to and help evolve design patterns and components tailored to robotics and industrial use cases.
  • Promote consistency across multiple tools and platforms so operators experience a coherent ecosystem when interacting with robots and automation.

Required Qualifications

• Education & experience
  • Bachelor’s degree in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), Interaction Design, Industrial Design, Human Factors, Cognitive Science, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • Portfolio showcasing end‑to‑end UX work on robotics, industrial, or similarly complex domains.
  • Typically 3–5+ years of experience in UX/Product Design, with at least 1–2 years working on robotics, industrial automation, or complex technical systems.
• Core skills
  • Strong skills in interaction design and information architecture for data‑dense, status‑rich interfaces.
  • Demonstrated ability to prioritize work and balance tactical and strategic efforts to maximize impact.
  • Proficiency with modern design and prototyping tools (e.g., Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD).
  • Ability to model workflows that span both digital and physical steps.
  • Comfort working with technical constraints and terminology; collaborate effectively with robotics and controls engineers.
  • Excellent communication and storytelling skills to explain complex technical concepts through simple visual narratives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing for industrial HMIs, SCADA, MES, or robotics programming/configuration environments.
• Experience with simulation, digital twin, or virtual commissioning tools.
• Experience with mixed human–robot environments (e.g., cobots, shared workspaces).
• Familiarity with basic robotics concepts, industrial standards, and safety considerations.
• Experience conducting field research with operators, technicians, engineers, and supervisors in labs and production environments.
• Strong knowledge of qualitative and quantitative methods to measure performance and usability.
• Knowledge of WCAG and accessibility standards, especially for control rooms and shop‑floor environments.
• Experience observing or working in manufacturing plants, test labs, or field environments, comfortable with PPE and safety procedures.

Behavioral Competencies

• User and operator empathy – deeply curious about how operators, technicians, and engineers actually work with robots in real conditions.
• Systems thinking – connects UI details to cell, line, and plant‑level workflows and KPIs.
• Safety mindset – naturally considers risk, error modes, and recovery paths in design decisions.
• Collaboration – builds strong relationships with engineering, operations, and safety partners; welcomes critique and iterates quickly.
• Adaptability & learning – comfortable learning new robotics concepts, tools, and standards, and applying them pragmatically to design.

Additional Information

This role is categorized as hybrid. The selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location at least 3 times a week and will be required to travel up to 25% of the time. The position may be eligible for relocation benefits.

About GM

Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, and Zero Congestion, and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer, and more equitable for all.

Equal Employment Opportunities

General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination but also fosters inclusion and belonging. All employment decisions are made on a non‑discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other protected status in accordance with federal, state, and local laws.