Principal Product Designer

Ford - Tallahassee, FL

Full-time - Senior

Tallahassee, FL

Transportation Equipment Manufacturing

About the position

The Principal Product Designer at Ford Motor Company is responsible for leading the design of innovative user experiences for in-vehicle and mobile applications. This role focuses on creating compelling product experiences that align with business objectives and user needs, while collaborating closely with product management and engineering teams. The designer will utilize their expertise in UI/UX to develop features, manage design projects, and apply data-driven insights to enhance product design.

Responsibilities

• Leading the design of features and improvements for products to align with business objectives and user needs.
• Using Figma and UX tools to develop vehicle features and compelling user experiences.
• Taking ownership of independent tracks of design work and managing timelines and deliverables.
• Developing and iterating on user flows, mock-ups, and prototypes to effectively communicate design ideas.
• Applying data-driven insights to inform design decisions and measure the impact of design changes.
• Expressing the brand vision through user interface design for in-vehicle experiences.
• Executing designs with attention to layout, color, typography, and interactive behavior.
• Exhibiting a passion for emerging hardware and software technologies and new interaction models.
• Collaborating closely with Product Management, Engineering, and Feature Teams to ensure a seamless transition from concept to implementation.
• Employing a systematic approach to solving large, complex design challenges.
• Presenting creative work early and often to key stakeholders in design reviews.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or a combination of education and equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience leading a team.
• 5+ years' experience working across a triad of designers, engineers, and product.
• 2+ years' experience collaborating with Product Requirement Documents (PRD's).
• Demonstrated experience with end-to-end design work required.
• Experience owning work from ideation to delivery, including working directly with Engineering & Product Management teams.
• Proven experience collaborating with Engineering teams to solve development issues through design.
• Experience working in Jira, owning tasks that map to delivery stage for engineering.
• Experience with iteratively designing a product in production based on usage and customer feedback.
• High performing prototyping abilities (e.g. Figma, ProtoPie or similar).

Nice-to-haves

• Exceptional visual design skills.
• Sensitivity to intelligent system interactions.
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies.
• Proficiency in human-centered design approaches, techniques, and philosophy.
• Automotive UI/HMI experience is a plus.
• Background in digital product design solutions.
• Excellent concepting, written, oral, and visual communication abilities.
• In-depth knowledge of the latest UI trends, techniques, and technologies.
• Background working through iterative product design cycles.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year's Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.