Staff Designer

Slate Auto; United States; On-site; USD 123,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Slate is seeking a senior product designer to lead end-to-end UX across multiple product areas, from concept to final QA, while shaping design systems and governance. You will drive UX strategy, translate ambiguous needs into clear design directions, and articulate decisions to executives with data, prototypes, and rationale.

You will work in a GenAI-enabled SDLC with engineers to ensure a cohesive design perspective across mobile, web configurator, and ownership tools, raising the craft across

Qualifications

• 10+ years of product design experience across mobile, web, and complex multi-step flows.
• Portfolio demonstrating interaction design craft and design systems.
• Experience building or evolving a design system with governance and documentation.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end UX for one or more product areas from concept to QA.
• Drive UX strategy and translate customer needs into design directions.
• Define interaction patterns across mobile app, web configurator, and ownership tools.
• Articulate design decisions to executives using data and prototypes.
• Set quality standards and provide actionable feedback to raise craft level.
• Collaborate in a GenAI-enabled SDLC with engineers to keep design perspective intact.

Skills

10+ years product design

Code prototyping

GenAI SDLC experience

Strong communication

Figma proficiency

Education

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

Tools

Figma

Prototyping tools

Job description

About Slate

At Slate, we’re building safe, reliable vehicles that people can afford, personalize and love—and doing it here in the USA as part of our commitment to reindustrialization. The spirit of DIY and customization runs throughout every element of a Slate, because people should have control over how their trucks look, feel, and represent them.

Who We Are Looking For

Slate is building vehicles from the ground up, and the digital experience is no exception. The Staff Designer on the Product Design team shapes how customers discover, configure, and live with a Slate Truck or SUV. This is a senior individual-contributor role: part systems thinker, part hands‑on craftsperson, part standard‑setter. The right person has designed products that shipped at scale, built design systems from scratch, elevated the teams around them, and brings genuine curiosity about how AI is changing what interaction design can do.

What You Will Do

Design Leadership

• Own end-to-end UX for one or more product areas: from early-stage concept through detailed interaction specs and final QA.
• Drive UX strategy and participate in product planning cycles, translating ambiguous customer needs into clear problem statements and design directions.
• Define and evolve interaction patterns across Slate's product surfaces: mobile app, web configurator, and ownership tools.
• Articulate design decisions and trade‑offs to executive stakeholders. When the room is skeptical, you make the case with data, prototypes, and clear logic.
• Set the quality bar. Review work across the team, give specific and actionable feedback, and raise the craft level across every touchpoint.
• Work comfortably in a GenAI‑enabled SDLC where the lines between design, engineering, and product are intentionally blurred. You can prototype in code, contribute to product framing, and collaborate with engineers who are also generating UI — without losing your design point of view.

Design Systems

• Architect and implement Slate's design system from the ground up: component libraries, token structures, usage guidelines, and contribution models.
• Build the system to scale across mobile, web, and future surfaces. Decisions made now will shape how the team ships for years.
• Define documentation standards that make the system usable without requiring a conversation. Other designers should be able to onboard to it independently.
• Establish a governance model that keeps the system current as the product evolves, without becoming a bottleneck.
• Partner with engineering to ensure design tokens and component specs translate accurately into production code.

Raising Team Standards

• Mentor mid‑level and senior designers on craft, systems thinking, and cross‑functional effectiveness. Invest in the people, not just the work.
• Introduce and refine design critique structures that give teams a shared vocabulary for giving and receiving feedback.
• Drive consistency across the product by identifying patterns that should be systematized and gaps where standards are missing.
• Model the kind of work that shifts what the team believes is possible. The best way to raise standards is to demonstrate them.
• Champion accessibility and inclusive design as a starting constraint, not a final checklist.

Mobile and Multi‑Surface Design

• Lead design for Slate's mobile experience (iOS and Android): vehicle connectivity, remote features, ownership tools, and the customization journey.
• Design coherently across platforms. Patterns built for a phone screen need to translate to a desktop configurator without feeling copy‑pasted.
• Understand the constraints of each surface: touch targets, gesture models, connectivity edge cases, performance limitations, and platform conventions.
• Partner closely with software engineering to ensure designs are buildable and behave correctly in production.

Growth Design

• Partner with Marketing and Growth to design acquisition, onboarding, and activation flows that convert interest into ownership.
• Apply experimentation rigor to growth surfaces: define hypotheses, work with data to size opportunities, and interpret results to inform next iterations.
• Own the design of referral, loyalty, and community features that turn Slate owners into advocates.
• Balance conversion goals against long‑term trust. Growth that erodes experience is not growth.

AI‑Powered Interaction Design

• Explore and prototype GenAI‑powered features: conversational configuration tools, intelligent recommendations, predictive service flows, and AI‑assisted personalization.
• Define interaction patterns for AI surfaces where outputs are probabilistic: how does the UI communicate confidence, and what does a good fallback look like?
• Use AI tools actively in your own workflow: rapid prototyping, generative ideation, accessibility evaluation, and content scaffolding.
• Stay current on how AI capabilities are changing what is possible in product UX and bring that perspective into planning conversations early.

Cross‑Functional Partnership

• Build strong working relationships with Brand, Software, Product, and Data teams. You're not a service provider; you're a co‑owner of outcomes.
• Contribute to UX process: critique structures, handoff standards, design system governance, and research planning.
• Translate design intent into clear engineering specs. Reduce ambiguity before it becomes a production problem.

What You Bring

• 10+ years of product design experience, with at least 3 years at a staff or equivalent senior IC level.
• A portfolio that demonstrates strong interaction design craft across mobile (iOS/Android), web, and complex multi‑step flows.
• Proven experience building or significantly evolving a design system: component architecture, token structure, documentation, and contribution governance.
• A track record of raising design quality on the teams you've worked with: through mentorship, critique, process improvements, or standard‑setting.
• Comfort operating in a GenAI‑enabled SDLC where design, engineering, and product ownership overlap. You've worked on teams where AI is accelerating the build cycle and you know how to stay effective — and opinionated — in that environment.
• Deep experience with mobile design patterns, platform conventions (Material Design and Apple HIG), and the practical realities of designing for connectivity and edge cases.
• Demonstrated growth design work: onboarding, activation, referral, or e‑commerce flows with measurable outcomes.
• Hands‑on experience integrating GenAI tools into design workflows (Figma AI, generative prototyping, AI‑assisted content) and designing AI‑powered product features.
• Proficiency in Figma, including component architecture, auto layout, variables, and prototyping for handoff.
• Experience working in agile product teams with embedded engineering and research partners.
• Strong communication skills: you write clearly, present confidently, and can adapt your level of detail for a PM, an engineer, or a C‑suite audience.
• Deep understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA) applied in practice, not just in principle.
• Bachelor's degree in Interaction Design, HCI, UX Design, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred

• Experience at a hardware/software company where physical and digital products intersect.
• Background in consumer electronics, mobility tech, or e‑commerce.
• Master's degree in Interaction Design, HCI, or a related UX field.
• Experience scaling a design system across multiple product surfaces and engineering teams.
• Experience with user research methods and the ability to run or co‑run studies when needed.

SALARY RANGE

The compensation for this position is the range Slate reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for the position taking into account the wide variety of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including job‑related knowledge; skillset; experience, education and training; certifications; work location; and other relevant business and organizational factors.

Base Pay Range (Annual)

123,339.00 - 185,009.00 USD

Additional Compensation and Benefits: Slate offers a wide range of competitive benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability insurance, vacation, and 401k. The successful candidate may also be eligible to participate in the equity program and/or a discretionary annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing such programs.

WHY JOIN TEAM SLATE?

At Slate, we’re fueled by grit, determination, and attention to detail. The start‑up spirit of ingenuity and resourcefulness move our business forward. Team Slate fosters a culture of excellence, innovation, and mutual respect, and is motivated by shared principles.

• Safety First
• Delight Customers
• One Team
• Relentless Improvement
• Fast, Frugal, and Scrappy
• Respectful Collaboration
• Positive Legacy

WE WANT TO WORK WITH PEOPLE THAT REFLECT THE COMMUNITIES IN WHICH WE OPERATE.

Slate is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and affirmative action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, marital status, parental status, cultural background, organizational level, work styles, tenure and life experiences. Or for any other reason.

Slate is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [e-mail].