Co-op, User Experience - Robotics

Rockwell Automation•Waterloo, ON

4d•CA$20 - CA$32•Hybrid

About The Position

Rockwell Automation's Robotics Center of Excellence (RCoE) is seeking a passionate UX Co-op to shape the future of human-robot interaction in autonomous operations. This role is embedded within a technical robotics research group, focusing on user experience research, interaction prototyping, and designing novel interfaces for people to work with intelligent machines. The position goes beyond traditional UX, exploring new modalities for communication between humans, robots, and machines.

Requirements

Actively pursuing a bachelor's or advanced degree from an accredited college or university.
Legal authorization to work in Canada is required.
Comfort designing and running UX research, including framing questions, talking to users, synthesizing learnings, and defending findings.
Comfort with code or 'vibe coding' to create interactive prototypes.
Genuine interest in robots, autonomous systems, or the impact of AI on human-machine interaction.
Excellent teamwork and communication skills for effective collaboration with multi-functional and multi-disciplined teams.
A track record of working through complex, unstructured problems.

Nice To Haves

A portfolio showcasing design thinking.
Experience with Figma or equivalent design tools.
Experience with ROS/ROS2.
Familiarity with research repository tools like Dovetail.
Prototyping experience in React or similar frameworks.
Any AR, VR, or spatial computing experience.
Experience with research, parsing academic publications, and literature review.
Background in human factors, HCI, or interaction design research.
Experience engaging with design or research communities through writing, talks, or open work.

Responsibilities

Contribute to ongoing work in human-robot interaction, operator interfaces, and integrating robots into enterprise tools.
Frame UX research questions, design studies, conduct interviews with operators and stakeholders, synthesize findings, and present actionable insights to the team.
Explore and prototype new interaction modes with robotic systems, including voice, gesture, ambient signals, chat-based agent control, and spatial interfaces.
Participate in design critiques and collaborate with designers, researchers, and engineers, providing and receiving feedback to improve work.
Document processes and findings through case studies, internal research reports, and potentially external publications or talks.