Remote Surface Pattern Design Jobs in Santa Clara, CA

Location: US Remote     Job Term: Full-Time

Picarro is looking for a Design Engineer to own the design portfolio across our Industrial Solutions products. This is a hands-on role for someone who thinks in systems, sweats the details, and can move fluidly between design and code. Shaping how our products look, feel, and behave from prototype through production.

Good design at Picarro means something specific: our users are compliance managers, EHS leads, and field operators making high-stakes decisions under real-world constraints. We care about clarity, trust, and workflow efficiency - not engagement or delight for its own sake.

You will define and maintain design standards across Industrial Solutions, contribute directly to prototypes, and make production code contributions that bring designs to life. You will work closely with PM and engineering to ensure design intent survives the handoff, ensuring that what ships matches what was envisioned.

Design Ownership

Own the design portfolio for Industrial Solutions, establishing and maintaining visual, interaction, and workflow standards across all products. You are the voice of design quality on the team.

User Research & Workflow Design

Deeply understand how industrial customers, compliance managers, EHS leads, and field operators work. Map user journeys, identify friction, and translate complex operational workflows into product experiences that are intuitive under real-world conditions.

Prototype Development

Collaborate with PM to build and refine product prototypes. You contribute, shape, and raise the quality bar before engineering picks work up.

Production Contributions

Make targeted code contributions in production to implement or refine UI and interaction patterns. You bridge the gap between what design specifies and what engineering delivers.

Design Review

Review production PRs for design and UX fidelity. Catch drift between intent and implementation before it reaches customers.

Design System Stewardship

Own and evolve the design system for Industrial Solutions, including components, patterns, and documentation to ensure consistency across the product surface.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Design, HCI, or a related field.
• 3-5 years of experience in a design engineering, UX engineering, or product design role.
• A portfolio of shipped product work - we want to see what you've built, how you think, and how your design decisions held up in production.
• Demonstrated ability to design and document complex user workflows, not just screens.
• Strong visual and UX design sensibility with the vocabulary to clearly articulate design decisions.
• Proficiency with Figma for user flows, wireframing, prototyping, and handoff.
• Proficiency in React, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS; you can read, write, and contribute to production code.
• Experience owning or contributing to a design system.
• Comfortable working closely with both PMs and engineers - you can speak both languages.
• AI-forward mindset with hands-on experience using AI tools in your design and development workflow.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing for data-dense, industrial, or enterprise environments where users are managing complex operational workflows.
• Comfort working with user research outputs, synthesizing interview findings, usability results, and journey maps to inform design decisions.
• Experience building prototypes that informed real engineering work, not just mockups.
• Exposure to backend systems sufficient to understand technical constraints on design decisions.
• Experience with or understanding of AI agents applied to design or frontend development workflows.
• Prior experience in a startup or high-growth technology company.

Salary & Benefits:

The base salary range for this full-time position is $130k-$170k, commensurate with experience, qualifications, and location.  Total compensation includes base salary, bonus eligibility, and equity.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA) plans
• Life, Short-Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability Insurance
• Flexible Vacation Policy and Paid Holidays
• Employee Referral Program
• 401K
• Social events (summer picnic, holiday party, team lunches, etc.)
• On-site Health & Wellness programs (fitness challenges, outdoor bootcamp, flu-shots, etc.)

About Picarro:

We are the global leader in delivering timely, trusted, and actionable data through enhanced optical spectroscopy. Our solutions serve diverse applications, including natural gas leak detection, ethylene oxide emissions monitoring, semiconductor fabrication, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, atmospheric science, air quality, greenhouse gas measurements, food safety, hydrology, and ecology. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, our products are trusted in over 90 countries and supported by over 65 patents related to cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) technology.

Picarro, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to creating a diverse workforce.