Surface Pattern Design Jobs in Michigan (NOW HIRING)

Job Description

At General Motors, our product teams are redefining mobility. Through a human-centered design process, we create vehicles and experiences that are designed not just to be seen, but to be felt. We're turning today's impossible into tomorrow's standard -from breakthrough hardware and battery systems to intuitive design, intelligent software, and next-generation safety and entertainment features.

Every day, our products move millions of peopleas we aim to makedriving safer, smarter, and more connected, shaping the future of transportation on a global scale..

The Role

The Robotics UX Designer is responsible for crafting intuitive, safe, and efficient user experiences for robotic systems and automation workflows. This role focuses on how humans monitor, control, configure, and collaborate with robots across digital interfaces (e.g., HMIs, dashboards, configuration tools) and, where relevant, physical touchpoints (e.g., teach pendants, safety panels).

You will work closely with robotics engineers, controls engineers, product managers, safety experts, and operations stakeholders to understand operator needs, task flows, and constraints on the plant floor or in lab environments. You translate these insights into user journeys, workflows, and interface designs that make complex robotic capabilities understandable, controllable, and trustworthy.

What You'll Do

Research, Visual/Hardware Design

• Evaluate Design Options in robotics environments
  • Map end-to-end workflows for tasks like cell bring-up, program changes, fault recovery, and maintenance.
  • Identify and prioritize usability, safety, and cognitive load issues in existing robotics tools and HMIs.
• Human-robot interaction (HRI) & experience design
  • Design interfaces, flows, and interaction patterns that make it easy to:
    • Configure and calibrate robots and cells
    • Monitor system status, performance, and alarms
    • Diagnose and recover from faults safely
    • Coordinate robots with other automation (conveyors, tooling, vision systems, AGVs, etc.)
  • Define how information is prioritized, surfaced, evaluated, and acted upon (e.g., alarms, warnings, system health, interlocks) to support safe decisions under pressure.
  • Recommend designs that ergonomics, situational awareness, and operator mental models-especially in high-consequence or time-critical situations.
• Safety, reliability, and constraints
  • Collaborate with safety and engineering teams to incorporate safety standards, operating envelopes, and lockout/tagout requirements into UX flows.
  • Design interactions that increase performance, reduce error probability, clarify system state, and support safe recovery when mistakes occur.
  • Balance ideal UX solutions with the constraints of real-time systems, hardware capabilities, and existing industrial standards.
• Collaboration with robotics & controls engineering
  • Partner with robotics, controls, and software engineers to translate system capabilities into understandable, usable interaction models.
  • Provide design specifications, flows, and prototypes for:
    • Robot and cell configuration tools
    • Diagnostic and monitoring dashboards
    • Simulation/virtual commissioning tools
    • Operator HMIs and field devices
  • Participate in design and implementation reviews to ensure the intended experience and safety behaviors are maintained through delivery.
• Prototyping and validation
  • Build interactive prototypes (screen-based and/or using simulators or digital twins) to explore concepts and validate workflows before deployment.
  • Use test findings, field feedback, and operational data to iterate and improve designs post-deployment.
  • Inform in-field instrumentation investments to enable continuous improvement and drive AI models
• Design systems for robotics tools
  • Contribute to and help evolve design patterns and components tailored to robotics and industrial use cases (e.g., alarm patterns, status indicators, timeline views, cell layout views).
  • Promote consistency across multiple tools and platforms so operators experience a coherent ecosystem when interacting with robots and automation.

Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)

• Education & experience
  • Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Interaction Design, Industrial Design, Human Factors, Cognitive Science, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • Portfolio showcasing end-to-end UX work on robotics, industrial, or similarly complex domains (configuration tools, dashboards, simulation/visualization, control interfaces).
  • Typically 3-5+ years of experience in UX/Product Design, with at least 1-2 years working on robotics, industrial automation, or complex technical systems.
• Core skills
  • Strong skills in interaction design and information architecture for data-dense, status-rich interfaces.
  • Demonstrated ability to prioritize work and balance tactical and strategic efforts to maximize the impact of limited resources
  • Proficiency with modern design and prototyping tools (e.g., Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, or similar).
  • Ability to model workflows that span both digital and physical steps (e.g., teaching points, jogging robots, aligning tooling, verifying sensors).
  • Comfort working with technical constraints and terminology-able to collaborate effectively with robotics and controls engineers.
  • Excellent communication and storytelling skills, including the ability to explain complex technical concepts through simple visual narratives and artifacts and set big picture goals for long-term efforts.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing for:
  • Industrial HMIs, SCADA, MES, or robotics programming/configuration environments
  • Simulation, digital twin, or virtual commissioning tools
  • Mixed human-robot environments (e.g., cobots, shared workspaces)
• Familiarity with:
  • Basic robotics concepts (kinematics, workspaces, programs, trajectories, safety zones, I/O)
  • Industrial standards and safety considerations (e.g., emergency stops, interlocks, guarding, light curtains)
  • Alarm and event management patterns for high-availability systems
• Experience with Research:
  • Conduct field research with operators, technicians, engineers, and supervisors in labs and production environments to understand how they interact with robots today (setup, operation, troubleshooting, maintenance).
  • Measure performance of current state and recommended solutions using both qualitative and quantitative methods
  • Set up repeatable research methods (hallway, laboratory, and field methods and recruitment pipelines) to generate predictable data collection to drive recommendations
  • Plan and run usability tests with representative users (e.g., operators, technicians, controls engineers) in realistic scenarios, including fault and edge cases.
• Knowledge of WCAG and accessibility standards, especially as they apply to control rooms and shop-floor environments (lighting, contrast, legibility, color usage).
• Experience observing or working in manufacturing plants, test labs, or field environments, and comfort donning appropriate PPE and following site safety procedures.

Behavioral Competencies

• User and operator empathy - deeply curious about how operators, technicians, and engineers actually work with robots in real conditions.
• Systems thinking - connects UI details to cell, line, and plant-level workflows and KPIs.
• Safety mindset - naturally considers risk, error modes, and recovery paths in design decisions.
• Collaboration - builds strong relationships with engineering, operations, and safety partners; welcomes critique and iterates quickly.
• Adaptability & learning - comfortable learning new robotics concepts, tools, and standards, and applying them pragmatically to design.

This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the selected candidate is expected to report to a specific location at least 3 times a week {or other frequency dictated by their manager}. The selected candidate will be required to travel <25% for this role. This job may be eligible for relocation benefits.

About GM

Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.

Why Join Us

We believe we all must make a choice every day - individually and collectively - to drive meaningful change through our words, our deeds and our culture. Every day, we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.

Benefits Overview

From day one, we're looking out for your well-being-at work and at home-so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources.

Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)

General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.

All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws.

We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required, where applicable, to successfully complete a role-related assessment(s) and/or a pre-employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more, visit How we Hire.

Accommodations

General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us or call us at 1-800-865-7580. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.