UX Product Design Lead

About the role

Skydio is actively seeking a UX Product Design Lead to define the critical user experience for the next generation of autonomous systems. In this role, you will own the end to end design of mission critical interfaces that serve professional operators in the most demanding environments. You will be responsible for translating extreme technological complexity into clear, reliable, and trustworthy interactions for remote operations. This position requires you to design not just screens, but the entire relationship between the human operator and the autonomous flying robot. You will partner closely with engineering and product leadership to ensure that system transparency and pragmatic workflows are baked into every interaction. Your work will directly impact how first responders, utility inspectors, and soldiers perceive and rely on autonomous technology in the field. You will be a strategic storyteller who uses narrative to align stakeholders and ensure the user voice remains central to technical tradeoffs.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Define the strategic UX vision and design language for Skydio's core platforms, including web, mobile, and ground control station experiences.
• Lead the discovery and synthesis of complex user needs through direct field research with public safety, energy, utilities, and defense customers.
• Architect critical user journeys that span multi vehicle operations, real time data feeds, and mission planning workflows.
• Design highly detailed, high fidelity prototypes that communicate system behavior, state changes, and potential failure modes.
• Partner with hardware and software engineers to ensure interface designs respect technical constraints and sensor capabilities.
• Translate abstract product requirements into concrete interaction models that maintain operator trust during high stress scenarios.
• Establish and maintain design systems and component libraries that ensure consistency across all touchpoints and remote operations views.
• Collaborate with product managers to define and validate metrics that measure clarity, confidence, and trust in the operator interface.
• Use AI powered tools to rapidly iterate on concepts, simulate user workflows, and generate design alternatives for evaluation.
• Present design rationale to executive leadership, using narrative and data to demonstrate how specific design decisions reduce operator cognitive load.
• Mentor junior designers by providing hands on guidance, design reviews, and coaching on systems thinking for robotic interfaces.
• Work cross functionally with safety, reliability, and compliance teams to ensure designs meet industry standards and operational requirements.
• Contribute to the development of reusable design patterns for alerts, status indicators, and spatial mapping visualizations.
• Evaluate emerging hardware form factors and sensing modalities to anticipate future interaction models for aerial robotics.
• Act as the primary design advocate in reviews, ensuring that human factors and operational context are never compromised for expediency.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Design, Human Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in product design, with at least 3 years in a leadership role shaping design strategy.
• Demonstrated experience designing for complex, data rich, and safety critical domains such as robotics, avionics, or industrial systems.
• Strong portfolio showcasing systems thinking, spatial interfaces, geospatial visualization, and remote hardware sensing scenarios.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to influence without direct authority.
• Comfort working in ambiguous problem spaces where requirements evolve based on technical and operational constraints.
• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent design initiatives and prioritize based on business and user impact.
• Willingness to travel occasionally to field sites, customer locations, and industry conferences to gather insights and validate designs.
• Proficiency with industry standard design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Sketch, or similar systems.
• Experience working with engineering teams in an Agile environment and comfort interpreting technical documentation.
• Deep commitment to accessibility, usability heuristics, and designing for diverse operator skill levels.
• Understanding of data visualization principles and how to present complex telemetry in an actionable format.
• Knowledge of remote operations, command and control workflows, or mission planning software is highly relevant.

Nice to have

• Experience with AI assisted design workflows and rapid prototyping tools.
• Background in public safety, utilities, defense, or other mission critical industries.
• Familiarity with drone or robotic system terminology and operational constraints.
• Contributions to open source design systems or published design research in complex interfaces.

Practical notes

• This role is based in San Mateo, California, and requires relocation or proximity to the office.
• Work is full time and aligned with standard business hours, with flexibility to support global operations.
• Occasional travel may be required for user research, customer visits, and industry events.
• Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship for this position.