User Experience Designer: Hardware Systems

Zipline•South San Francisco, CA

11d

About The Position

Zipline’s New Products team is seeking a User Experience Designer to research and shape how people interact with its precision delivery system, Platform 2. The cross-disciplinary role sits at the intersection of industrial design, software, operations, and service design. It focuses on the human experience of hardware and the digital tools that support it. The designer will define requirements for system touchpoints and champion them through development to create strong experiences for Zipline operators and customers. The role covers end-to-end experiences across physical and digital touchpoints, including aircraft, pods, docks, loading workflows, partner infrastructure, operator tools, and customer-facing interactions. The designer translates complex system behavior into interaction models, user journeys, service flows, and product requirements; conducts field research; prototypes and tests concepts; and advocates for clarity, safety, usability, and trust in autonomous delivery experiences.

Requirements

At least 5 years of experience in User Experience, Industrial Design, Service or Interaction Design, or Product Design shaping user connection to physical products, digital interfaces, and real-world workflows.
A strong portfolio showcasing real-world results.
Strong visual communication skills, including journey maps, diagrams, wireframes, storyboards, and prototypes.
A practical, simplicity-seeking design sensibility and the ability to prototype physically and digitally.
Comfort presenting work to executive leadership and championing product requirements and design decisions.
Strong systems thinking and the ability to make complex technical experiences simple and usable.
Design research skills, including in-person analysis of user behavior through interviews, field visits, focus groups, and surveys.
Ability to move between abstract journey-level thinking and detailed interaction design in ways implementation teams can understand.
Ability to work in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with evolving technical constraints.
Entrepreneurial mindset and humble confidence backed by real-world understanding.

Responsibilities

Design end-to-end user experiences across physical and digital touchpoints, including aircraft, pods, docks, loading workflows, partner infrastructure, operator tools, and customer-facing moments.
Translate complex system behavior into clear interaction models, user journeys, service flows, and product requirements.
Partner with Engineers and Industrial Designers to define physical interactions, affordances, feedback, status communication, and error recovery.
Work with Digital Product teams to ensure consistency between physical system behavior and software interfaces.
Conduct field research with operators, partners, customers, technicians, and internal teams to understand real-world workflows and pain points.
Identify design opportunities across system hardware, software, service, and operations.
Help prioritize user needs and translate them into product requirements.
Prototype and test interaction concepts at appropriate fidelity, including sketches, diagrams, click-through prototypes, physical mockups, and in-field simulations.
Advocate for clarity, safety, usability, and human trust in autonomous delivery experiences.
Champion product requirements and design decisions through development and when presenting work to executive leadership.