Staff UX Designer

Let's introduce ourselves

Volvo Cars is on an ambitious journey to redefine what it means to own a vehicle during one of most innovative times in the transport industry. Volvo Cars is looking to redefine all aspects of the car eco-system including ownership, autonomous driving, vehicle electrification, sustainability and online shopping. User Experience as a discipline is a key part of Volvo Cars' strategy and our UX organization will help gather insights about our user's and redefine and elevate the users experience of Volvo's products and Services.

What you'll do

We are seeking a senior UX Designer to expand our electrification team, where we aim to support the transition to sustainable personal transportation by making switching to electric vehicles a seamless and delightful experience.

Main responsibilities include:

• Lead the design of physical user interfaces: Define, prototype, and refine controls to deliver intuitive and premium tactile interactions

• Technical development: understanding and dialogue on the package capabilities and limitations for proof of concepts and implementation of physical interfaces

• Start from a UX concept based on user needs and human-centric design principles, rather than from a form-driven design proposal 

• Translate these UX concepts into feasible physical interaction principles that define placement, logic, and behaviour of controls

• Provide this foundation to the design team, ensuring that subsequent design work is grounded in validated user experience requirements

• Balance design ambitions with ergonomics, haptics, safety, and manufacturability

Software & functional architecture integration:

• Align physical controls with underlying system functions and vehicle domain architectures

• Define interaction logic and ensure correct mapping between physical inputs, digital responses, and multimodal feedback (visual, haptic, auditory)

• Collaborate with UX architects and software teams to secure consistent system behavior across physical and digital touchpoints

• Ergonomics and human factors: Validate control placement, reach, and usability through data-driven evaluations, mockups, and user testing

• Prototyping and validation: Build physical and digital prototypes (3D-printed parts, functional rigs, VR simulations) to evaluate tactile quality and system integration

• Specification and documentation: Deliver detailed UX concepts, interaction requirements, and design intent documentation for cross-functional engineering and design teams

• Cross-functional collaboration: Act as a bridge between UX, design, engineering, and software to ensure harmony between physical form, digital function, and Volvo’s design language 

• Benchmarking and innovation: Track competitor solutions and explore new technologies such as capacitive controls, force feedback, adaptive haptics, and smart surfaces

What you'll bring

As a senior Physical UX Designer, you will shape the future of in-car interaction by defining and developing concepts in the field of controls, surfaces and sensors, meaning that seamlessly integrate into the vehicle’s interior and exterior. Your role is to translate complex technical requirements and customer needs into intuitive, human-centered physical experiences that enhance the overall usability and perception of our cars.

You will be responsible for delivering design artifacts such as interaction concepts, ergonomic layouts, mock-ups, and prototypes that balance design quality, safety, and intuitive functionality. Working closely with other designers, engineers, and product teams, you will ensure that every physical touchpoint contributes to a cohesive and premium user experience across Volvo’s design landscape. 

As part of your work, you will advocate for the user and develop a deep understanding of customer needs and pain points related to physical interaction. You will serve as an expert within your product team, proposing innovative concepts and refining existing solutions to create intuitive, glanceable, and satisfying physical interactions.

Your focus will be on developing technically informed, user-focused hypotheses and designs for how people interact with their vehicles physically — whether through tactile controls, illuminated guidance, or functional storage solutions. With strong design skills and a proven track record in physical interaction design, you will contribute to and build upon existing design systems while pushing the boundaries of what great in-car physical UX can be.

You’ve been designing for 6+ years for a consumer-focused tech company, so you understand what it takes to create elegant, consumer-oriented experiences. You know that appropriate design solutions come not from a brief or a focus group but rather from the deep understanding of our users, their context and the challenges created by technology within that context. 

You are a versatile designer who uses a full range of skills—product design, interaction design, and visual design or prototyping — to ensure you deliver magical experiences to the customer. You are a strong collaborator, who can work with not only design partners, but many other stakeholders from engineering to marketing. You’re a strong communicator who can inspire teams towards action and empathy for the user. You have a people-focused design mentality.

You are also constantly looking to hone your design instinct through user feedback. Whether that’s hands-on user research or a quantitative A/B test. You have visual skills to deliver rich concepts and production ready designs that balance design aesthetics with intuitive functionality.

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