AR/VR Interaction Designer

Applied Materials•Austin, TX

4d•$132,000 - $181,500•Onsite

About The Position

The AR/VR Interaction Designer will craft intuitive, immersive experiences that help users navigate, learn, and perform tasks in augmented and virtual reality. This role emphasizes interaction design, spatial layout, user workflow logic, and prototyping. The ideal candidate understands how to design for spatial computing, structure 3D environments for clarity and usability, and collaborate with developers and SMEs to bring interactions to life. This is a great role for someone who thinks like a systems designer + interaction engineer, who can shape how users move, act, and understand complex information in 3D space.

Requirements

3+ years of experience in AR/VR, interaction design, product design, or spatial UX.
Strong understanding of spatial computing principles, ergonomics, and user workflows in 3D environments.
Experience with Unity or Unreal for prototyping interactions.
Ability to storyboard interactions, communicate system logic, and design clear user pathways.
Comfort working with CAD or 3D assets for layout and interaction purposes.

Nice To Haves

Experience designing AR/VR training, industrial workflows, or complex procedural experiences.
Understanding of real‑time performance constraints and AR/VR device capabilities.
Background working with instructional designers, technical SMEs, or engineering workflows.
Familiarity with UX research in immersive environments.

Responsibilities

Spatial UX & Interaction Design: Design user interactions, flows, and behaviors for AR/VR applications, focusing on clarity, ergonomics, and real‑world usability.
Create spatial layouts that organize 3D environments logically and support task completion—without needing to build complex models from scratch.
Define interaction patterns (gaze, gesture, controller, hand‑tracking) and specify how users engage with objects, information, and guidance cues.
Prototyping & Experience Architecture: Develop low‑ to mid‑fidelity prototypes in Unity/Unreal or XR prototyping tools to validate interactions quickly.
Partner with developers to implement interactive behaviors, refine UX patterns, and test feasibility.
Iterate rapidly based on feedback from users, SMEs, and engineering partners.
Collaboration with SMEs & Developers: Work alongside engineers, instructional designers, and AR/VR developers to translate procedures, workflows, and technical tasks into intuitive immersive experiences.
Provide interaction guidelines, annotated mockups, and behavior specifications for developers.
Communicate design intent clearly and advocate for user‑centric spatial solutions.
Asset Integration & Environment Structuring: Import and arrange existing CAD models and 3D assets into functional, navigable AR/VR scenes.
Identify asset needs and coordinate with 3D artists when higher-fidelity or optimized models are required—without being responsible for full asset creation.
Optimize environment layout (scale, affordances, lighting, navigation flow) for usability and performance.
Documentation & Design Guidelines: Create UX specifications, interaction schematics, layout standards, and behavioral logic documentation.
Contribute to a cohesive design language for AR/VR experiences that can be reused across training, engineering, and operational use cases.
User Acceptance Testing: Determine and apply the most effective user research methodologies to uncover pain points and inform design decisions
Conduct usability testing and gather feedback from end-users to ensure designs solve real-world problems effectively.