Lead Industrial Designer, Robotics

OpenAI•San Francisco, CA

9d•$207,000 - $310,000•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a Lead Product & Industrial Designer to help define the visual identity, form language, and physical expression of our robotic products. You will work closely with leadership, product, and engineering teams to shape how our systems look, feel, and communicate their capabilities through industrial design. This role spans concept development, industrial design, surface development, and product definition. You will help establish a cohesive design language across robotic platforms while balancing aesthetics, usability, manufacturability, and engineering constraints. Unlike traditional industrial design roles that focus primarily on concept generation and visualization, you will be expected to create production-intent digital assets and geometry that can be directly integrated into engineering workflows. You will play a central role in shaping the physical experience of future robotic systems and ensuring that design intent remains intact from concept through implementation. This role is based in San Francisco, CA. This role will be expected to be in office 4 days per week and offer relocation assistance to new employees.

Requirements

Exceptional taste and strong intuition for proportion, form, surface quality, and physical product design.
Enjoy collaborating closely with engineers and can comfortably navigate both design and technical constraints.
Capable of moving from ambiguous product concepts to detailed, production-ready design assets.
Think systematically about how design choices influence usability, manufacturability, and product perception.
Excited about helping define the identity of an entirely new class of products.

Nice To Haves

Extensive experience designing consumer electronics, robotics products, transportation products, advanced hardware systems, or other highly refined physical products.
Strong portfolio demonstrating excellence in industrial design, form development, visual storytelling, and physical product execution.
Experience creating CAD geometry, Class A surfaces, or production-intent digital assets that can be directly consumed by engineering teams.
Proficiency with industry-standard design and surface development tools such as Alias, NX, Rhino, Blender, Gravity Sketch, or equivalent.
Experience working closely with hardware engineering teams from concept development through manufacturing.

Responsibilities

Define and evolve the visual identity, form language, and design principles of robotic products and supporting hardware systems.
Create sketches, renderings, digital concepts, and physical prototypes to communicate design intent and explore new product directions.
Develop production-intent surface geometry and digital assets that can be integrated directly into engineering CAD workflows.
Partner closely with product, engineering, and leadership teams to translate product goals into compelling physical designs.
Drive industrial design decisions across the product development lifecycle, balancing aesthetics, functionality, manufacturability, and system constraints.
Collaborate with mechanical engineers to ensure design intent is preserved throughout development and manufacturing.
Conduct design reviews and provide feedback on proportion, surface quality, form, fit-and-finish, and overall product experience.
Support rapid concept exploration and iteration through physical and digital prototyping.
Establish and maintain design standards, workflows, and best practices for industrial design and surface development.
Help define the long-term design vision for future robotic products and hardware platforms.