Product Designer, Defense

Applied Intuition Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive defense trucking construction mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure operating systems and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers as well as the United States military and its allies trust the companys solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale California with offices in Washington D.C.; San Diego; Ft. Walton Beach Florida; Ann Arbor Michigan; London; Stuttgart; Munich; Stockholm; Bangalore; Seoul; and Tokyo. Learn more at .

We are an in-office company and our expectation is that full-time employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. This in-office expectation does not apply to contractor positions

Physical AI is the next wave beyond LLMs and the stakes are highest in defense: fragmented systems cause missed threats and clunky interfaces cost operators time they cant get back. Applied is one of a small number of companies with the product surface field access and engineering depth to fix this.

The Defense team has proven its autonomy simulation and onboard systems in real deployments. Now were turning bespoke program-driven wins into products that scale across customers platforms and theaters and design carries a lot of that weight.

Were hiring a Product Designer to own that experience end to end across two connected surfaces:

• Real-time operator interfaces for command control and situational awareness on tablets ground stations and shipboard/airborne environments with constrained compute and connectivity.

• Enterprise web platforms that defense engineering teams customers and partners use to build simulate test and ship autonomy.

You dont need to arrive as a defense expert you need to be a fast rigorous learner who can turn a complex domain into a clear point of view. Youll conduct primary research with warfighters analysts and engineers and pair with a strong PM and engineering bench to ship. Expect up to 25% travel including internationally to bases ranges and customer sites.

Reports to the head of product design; partners with PMs across DroneStack Defense OS autonomy platforms and simulation plus the engineers building each system.

• Own the design of one or more Defense products end to end research interaction and visual design prototyping shipped UI.

• Become the voice of the operator through primary research ride-alongs and exercises with warfighters and partners.

• Design real-time edge interfaces that reduce cognitive load and shorten the decide-act loop under contested comms and limited compute.

• Design the trust model for agentic autonomy approval and escalation patterns that keep humans meaningfully on the loop.

• Design the enterprise tools used to build simulate validate and ship autonomy.

• Extend the Defense design system to serve both real-time and enterprise workflows without splintering.

• Turn one-off program deliveries into repeatable products.

• Represent design at demos program reviews and industry events; help grow the design practice as the vertical scales.

• 8 years of product design experience across at least two meaningfully different environments (industries product types stages or customer segments).

• Track record shipping products end to end research through launch and iteration including hard calls on what not to build.

• Strong research instincts: proven ability to learn a new domain from scratch and turn findings into design direction.

• A portfolio showing judgment on information density decision UI and multi-user workflows.

• Comfort learning and designing for technically complex systems (no autonomy/robotics background required).

• Strong engineer collaboration and ability to partner with EMs/tech leads on tradeoffs.

• Clear communication from design briefs to presentations for senior leadership.

• Proficiency with modern prototyping tools.

• U.S. citizenship required.

• Must hold or be eligible for a U.S. security clearance (TS/SCI target; Applied will sponsor).

• Active DoD Secret/Top Secret/TS-SCI clearance.

• Experience with defense intelligence maritime aerospace or first-responder users.

• Background in C2 air traffic cockpit/EFB geospatial or real-time simulation interfaces.

• Experience with developer platforms MLOps data labeling or test/observability tools.

• Design experience for edge/constrained-compute environments.

• Experience shaping trust/approval patterns for AI copilots or agentic systems.

• Prior military intelligence or fleet operational service.

• Experience helping build a design practice from the ground up.

Includes base salary equity and benefits (medical/dental/vision/life/disability 401(k) match learning/wellness stipends PTO). Base salary range for this Sunnyvale-based role: $150000$200000. Actual salary depends on experience skills and level.

Dont meet every single requirement If youre excited about this role but your past experience doesnt align perfectly with every qualification in the job description we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Applied Intuition is an equal opportunity employer and federal contractor or subcontractor. Consequently the parties agree that as applicable they will abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-1.4(a) 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and that these laws are incorporated herein by reference. These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity or national origin. These regulations require that covered prime contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment individuals without regard to race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin protected veteran status or disability. The parties also agree that as applicable they will abide by the requirements of Executive Order 13496 (29 CFR Part 471 Appendix A to Subpart A) relating to the notice of employee rights under federal labor laws.

FOR US-BASED ROLES: Applied Intuition is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive application and interview experience to applicants who are disabled veterans and other applicants with disabilities or medical conditions. Reasonable accommodations are available requesting an accommodation will not affect your candidacy in any way and you are not required to disclose the nature of your disability or medical condition in order to make a request.
If you require an accommodation please contact . We will work with you!

Required Experience:

IC