Principal Product Designer

Ford - Atlanta, GA

Full-time - Senior

Atlanta, GA

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 emphasizes collaboration with cross-functional teams to create compelling product designs that align with business objectives and user needs. The designer will utilize their expertise in UI/UX to enhance product features, ensuring a seamless integration of design and technology.

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
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments
• 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.