Product/User Experience Designer - Contract

We are seeking a talented and pragmatic Product/User Experience Designer to join our team on a contract basis. In this role, you will design and deliver intuitive, efficient workflows that support the operation, management, and scaling of Kodiak’s autonomous trucking and logistics ecosystem.

You will work closely with Product, Engineering, and Operations teams to create user-centered experiences across internal tools and operator workflows—including mission control, routing, and remote assistance. Your work will directly impact how our teams and partners manage autonomous vehicles in real time.

You will build and deliver best-in-class experiences for the Kodiak team through hands-on work, design leadership and by collaborating with other leaders and cross-functional team members. This role calls for a creative leader with an unwavering commitment to user-centered design. This passion translates into flawless execution, leveraging a deep understanding of design patterns to increase efficiency, cut through noise, and streamline usability of our operations products. 

This role can be remote or onsite in our Mountain View headquarters. You will work with a team distributed across time-zones in the US. 

In this role, you will:

• Enable our operations team to maximize the efficiency of our fleet of self-driving vehicles by proposing designs that enhance Kodiak’s suite of operational tools that enable remote fleet management, routing, monitoring, remote support, and troubleshooting.
• Spearhead the end-to-end design process, translating ambiguous problems and complex user needs into concrete, innovative solutions—from mock-ups and prototypes to detailed specs—that define and drive the Kodiak product vision forward. 
• Own design deliverables from concept to launch, expertly tailoring solutions to balance product requirements, technical constraints, and stakeholder needs, ensuring the delivery of intuitive and effective designs in a fast-paced environment.
• Champion user needs through continuous research, testing, and iteration, compellingly communicating design rationale (via storytelling and clear justification) and advocating for user-centric approaches 
• Partner across engineering, product management, operations and other cross-functional teams to co-create solutions, and ensure the high-quality implementation of intuitive user experiences.
• Lead the design, documentation, to establish an overall design system (components, patterns, documentation) to set the path forward for visual and functional consistency.
• Passionately advocate for exceptional design craft, quality, and design principles, inspiring teams and influencing how we optimize processes to build best-in-class AI experiences.

What you’ll bring:

• 5+ years of product design experience in a product-driven company, with a compelling portfolio showcasing your work on shipped consumer or enterprise products, particularly those involving complex workflows. 
• Demonstrated ability to lead end-to-end design for complex products in ambiguous, fast-paced environments, with a strong aptitude for navigating complexity and translating user needs into clear, actionable, and creative solutions.
• Deep expertise in interaction design, visual design, and user experience principles, consistently upholding a high bar for quality and craftsmanship
• Proficiency in Figma and other modern design and prototyping tools, with experience contributing to a design system in an iterative software development environment.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate design rationale, present work compellingly to diverse audiences (including cross-functional teams and stakeholders), and effectively advocate for the user in a room with engineering, product, and leadership teams. 
• A proactive, builder mindset with a desire to influence the design process and culture.
• Experience conducting user interviews and usability testing to gather user feedback and insights.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. You know how to facilitate tradeoffs between engineering and product requirements, but always maintain high safety standards.
• Passion. You are passionate about autonomous vehicles and their potential impact on humanity.