Staff Designer – VehicleOS, System Utilities

General Motors•Sunnyvale, CA

2d•$147,100 - $225,600•Hybrid

About The Position

GM’s Human Interface Design – Vehicle Studio is hiring a Staff Designer – System Utilities to define the core building blocks of our in-vehicle operating system. In this role, you’ll be a senior individual contributor and systems thinker, responsible for the patterns, frameworks, and interactions that power connectivity, profiles, settings, controls, notifications, keyboards, and more. You’ll work across brands and platforms to ensure system utilities feel coherent, predictable, and effortless to use. If you like simplifying complex configuration, building reusable frameworks, and shaping OS-level behaviors, this role will put you at the heart of GM’s vehicle OS.

Requirements

9+ years’ experience designing digital interfaces for web, mobile, or embedded platforms, with significant work on system utilities, frameworks, or core application shells.
Formal training or degree in Interface Design, Visual Design, Interaction Design, HCI, or related discipline.
Strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end UX, interaction patterns, and visual systems for settings, controls, or other foundational UI.
Proven ability to drive platform-level design strategies that balance user needs, technical constraints, and business objectives.
Demonstrated success building design systems, component libraries, and documentation that scale across products or teams.
Proficiency in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite; familiarity with prototyping tools for complex flows and system behaviors.
Strong collaboration skills with platform engineering, security, connectivity, and product partners.
Excellent communication skills, including the ability to align stakeholders around frameworks and patterns.
Strong systems thinking, detail orientation, and reliability in everyday flows.

Nice To Haves

Experience in automotive, OS design, connected devices, or consumer electronics.
Hands-on experience in agile or lean environments, including backlog grooming and iterative UX delivery.
Deep understanding of accessibility and inclusive design, particularly for settings, text input, and control patterns.
Proficiency in prototyping complex flows and collaborating closely with software and/or hardware development teams.
Experience mentoring and influencing design quality across multiple teams or programs.

Responsibilities

Lead the design of system utilities and OS-level frameworks (connections, accounts, profiles, settings, controls, notifications, virtual keyboards).
Define and evolve system patterns, information architecture, and interaction models that make complex tasks feel simple and predictable.
Partner with platform engineering, security, connectivity, and product teams to design scalable, reusable solutions.
Own cross-program initiatives from problem framing and flows through to high-fidelity designs and specifications.
Build and maintain design guidelines, components, and documentation used by teams across the organization.
Drive cohesion and consistency across brands, surfaces, and platforms, while honoring brand guidelines.
Use research insights, telemetry, and usability testing to inform and validate system utility designs.
Identify cross-team dependencies and help align roadmaps and priorities around shared frameworks.
Mentor other designers on systems thinking, pattern design, and documentation practices.
Help foster a pragmatic, inclusive, and collaborative culture centered on user needs.