Head Of Design Jobs in California
Head Of Design jobs in California rank among the most active markets in the country, concentrated in technology, entertainment, consumer products, and fintech, with openings at every level from junior design manager to VP-adjacent creative leadership. San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego are the dominant hiring centers, anchored by employers such as Apple, Netflix, and Adobe, which maintain large design organizations across the state. Demand is strongest for heads of design with expertise in product design systems, brand experience, and cross-platform UX. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Job Description:
A major focus of this role will be shaping the next generation of AI-native and agent-driven workflows across the autonomy lifecycle. As Hivemind evolves from traditional software tooling toward AI-assisted autonomy development, simulation, evaluation, deployment, and operations, this leader will help invent entirely new ways for users to collaborate with AI systems, agents, and foundation-model-powered tools. The ideal candidate has deep experience designing AI products, developer platforms, or complex technical systems and can translate emerging AI capabilities into workflows that dramatically improve user productivity and outcomes.
This is a highly hands-on role as this leader will manage a team of elite designers. During the first 6–12 months, most of the time will be spent conducting user research, designing experiences, prototyping concepts, facilitating product discovery, and partnering directly with Product and Engineering teams to define the future of autonomy development.
What you'll do:
User Research & Product Discovery
- Lead customer research efforts across product development, customer engagement, and solutions teams to identify pain points, workflows, unmet needs, and product opportunities.
- Establish scalable mechanisms for gathering, synthesizing, and communicating user insights throughout the product development lifecycle.
- Translate customer and operational feedback into actionable product recommendations, requirements, and design initiatives.
Product Design & User Experience
- Design end-to-end workflows across autonomy development, simulation, testing, analysis, deployment, and operations.
- Create intuitive experiences for highly technical users including autonomy engineers, software developers, operators, and mission planners.
- Simplify complex system architectures, data flows, infrastructure tooling, and AI workflows into understandable user experiences.
- Own the end-to-end experience of the product including training, documentation, tutorials, and overall workflows – help our users get the most of the product.
Strategic Product Leadership
- Partner closely with Product Managers to shape product vision, roadmap priorities, and go-to-market strategies.
- Drive alignment across Product, Engineering, Design, and Executive Leadership through compelling narratives, prototypes, and visual storytelling.
- Advocate for user-centered decision making in a highly technical and engineering-driven environment.
Design Practice, Systems & Organizational Scale
- Establish and evolve design standards, design systems, UX principles, and product design best practices across Shield AI.
- Raise the quality bar for product design, usability, consistency, and customer experience.
- Grow the product design function by mentoring a small team of designers, shaping design culture, and staying actively involved in critical design work.
- Champion design wins and impact across the organization, highlighting the important role design plays in delivering successful products.
AI-Native Product Design & Agentic Workflows
- Define the future user experience for AI-assisted autonomy development, simulation, testing, deployment, and operational workflows.
- Design human-AI collaboration models that enable users to effectively leverage AI agents, copilots, and foundation-model-powered systems.
- Partner with Product, AI Research, and Engineering teams to create new interaction patterns for agent orchestration, autonomy generation, scenario creation, test generation, and mission planning.
- Develop frameworks for trust, transparency, explainability, and human oversight within AI-assisted workflows.
- Help establish industry-leading design patterns for Physical AI development platforms and agent-driven software systems.
Required qualifications:
- 10+ years of experience in Product Design, UX Design, Human Factors, or related fields.
- Proven track record designing and shipping complex technical products, developer tools, platforms, infrastructure software, data-dense applications, or enterprise systems.
- Deep technical fluency and ability to effectively collaborate with senior engineering leaders on architecture, technical constraints, and software development workflows.
- Strong experience conducting user research and translating insights into product strategy and design solutions.
- Proven ability to influence product direction and organizational decisions without direct authority.
- Strong understanding of AI-powered product experiences, including conversational interfaces, human-in-the-loop workflows, AI-assisted decision making, and agent-based systems.
- Experience defining new user experiences in ambiguous technology spaces where industry standards and workflows are still emerging.
- Experience building and retaining high-performing design teams.
- Strong portfolio showcasing both strategic thinking and hands-on design execution.
Preferred qualifications:
- Background designing developer platforms, SDKs, cloud infrastructure products, DevOps tooling, or engineering productivity tools.
- Direct work on AI/ML platforms, MLOps workflows, foundation-model-enabled products, copilots, or agentic systems.
- Familiarity with autonomy, robotics, simulation, digital twins, mission systems, physical AI, or related development workflows including testing, evaluation, deployment, and operations.
- Portfolio examples involving command-and-control systems, mission-planning interfaces, operational dashboards, or real-time decision-support tools.
- Ability to design across integrated hardware/software systems.
- Domain exposure to defense technology, aerospace, robotics, or other regulated, mission-critical, or high-consequence operational environments.
Full-time regular employee offer package:
Job Description:
A major focus of this role will be shaping the next generation of AI-native and agent-driven workflows across the autonomy lifecycle. As Hivemind evolves from traditional software tooling toward AI-assisted autonomy development, simulation, evaluation, deployment, and operations, this leader will help invent entirely new ways for users to collaborate with AI systems, agents, and foundation-model-powered tools. The ideal candidate has deep experience designing AI products, developer platforms, or complex technical systems and can translate emerging AI capabilities into workflows that dramatically improve user productivity and outcomes.
This is a highly hands-on role as this leader will manage a team of elite designers. During the first 6–12 months, most of the time will be spent conducting user research, designing experiences, prototyping concepts, facilitating product discovery, and partnering directly with Product and Engineering teams to define the future of autonomy development.
What you'll do:
User Research & Product Discovery
- Lead customer research efforts across product development, customer engagement, and solutions teams to identify pain points, workflows, unmet needs, and product opportunities.
- Establish scalable mechanisms for gathering, synthesizing, and communicating user insights throughout the product development lifecycle.
- Translate customer and operational feedback into actionable product recommendations, requirements, and design initiatives.
Product Design & User Experience
- Design end-to-end workflows across autonomy development, simulation, testing, analysis, deployment, and operations.
- Create intuitive experiences for highly technical users including autonomy engineers, software developers, operators, and mission planners.
- Simplify complex system architectures, data flows, infrastructure tooling, and AI workflows into understandable user experiences.
- Own the end-to-end experience of the product including training, documentation, tutorials, and overall workflows – help our users get the most of the product.
Strategic Product Leadership
- Partner closely with Product Managers to shape product vision, roadmap priorities, and go-to-market strategies.
- Drive alignment across Product, Engineering, Design, and Executive Leadership through compelling narratives, prototypes, and visual storytelling.
- Advocate for user-centered decision making in a highly technical and engineering-driven environment.
Design Practice, Systems & Organizational Scale
- Establish and evolve design standards, design systems, UX principles, and product design best practices across Shield AI.
- Raise the quality bar for product design, usability, consistency, and customer experience.
- Grow the product design function by mentoring a small team of designers, shaping design culture, and staying actively involved in critical design work.
- Champion design wins and impact across the organization, highlighting the important role design plays in delivering successful products.
AI-Native Product Design & Agentic Workflows
- Define the future user experience for AI-assisted autonomy development, simulation, testing, deployment, and operational workflows.
- Design human-AI collaboration models that enable users to effectively leverage AI agents, copilots, and foundation-model-powered systems.
- Partner with Product, AI Research, and Engineering teams to create new interaction patterns for agent orchestration, autonomy generation, scenario creation, test generation, and mission planning.
- Develop frameworks for trust, transparency, explainability, and human oversight within AI-assisted workflows.
- Help establish industry-leading design patterns for Physical AI development platforms and agent-driven software systems.
Required qualifications:
- 10+ years of experience in Product Design, UX Design, Human Factors, or related fields.
- Proven track record designing and shipping complex technical products, developer tools, platforms, infrastructure software, data-dense applications, or enterprise systems.
- Deep technical fluency and ability to effectively collaborate with senior engineering leaders on architecture, technical constraints, and software development workflows.
- Strong experience conducting user research and translating insights into product strategy and design solutions.
- Proven ability to influence product direction and organizational decisions without direct authority.
- Strong understanding of AI-powered product experiences, including conversational interfaces, human-in-the-loop workflows, AI-assisted decision making, and agent-based systems.
- Experience defining new user experiences in ambiguous technology spaces where industry standards and workflows are still emerging.
- Experience building and retaining high-performing design teams.
- Strong portfolio showcasing both strategic thinking and hands-on design execution.
Preferred qualifications:
- Background designing developer platforms, SDKs, cloud infrastructure products, DevOps tooling, or engineering productivity tools.
- Direct work on AI/ML platforms, MLOps workflows, foundation-model-enabled products, copilots, or agentic systems.
- Familiarity with autonomy, robotics, simulation, digital twins, mission systems, physical AI, or related development workflows including testing, evaluation, deployment, and operations.
- Portfolio examples involving command-and-control systems, mission-planning interfaces, operational dashboards, or real-time decision-support tools.
- Ability to design across integrated hardware/software systems.
- Domain exposure to defense technology, aerospace, robotics, or other regulated, mission-critical, or high-consequence operational environments.
Full-time regular employee offer package:
See All 14 Head Of Design Jobs in California
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Find Head Of Design JobsHead Of Design Jobs by City in California
Where California roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Head Of Design Job Market in California
A snapshot from current California openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
- Science & Research
- Banking & Financial Services
What California Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in head of design jobs across California.
- Bachelor's or master's degree in design, human-computer interaction, or a related field
- Eight or more years of design experience including leadership of multidisciplinary teams
- Proven ability to build and scale design systems across product and brand touchpoints
- Strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end design ownership from strategy through execution
- Experience partnering with product management and engineering in an agile environment
- Proficiency in Figma, Sketch, or equivalent tools alongside presentation and storytelling skills
Head Of Design Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a head of design in California?
Reaching a head of design role in California typically requires a degree in design, human-computer interaction, or a closely related field, followed by progressive experience as a senior individual contributor and then a design manager. California employers, particularly in tech and entertainment, place heavy weight on a strong portfolio that shows cross-functional leadership, systems thinking, and measurable product or brand impact rather than any state-issued license or certification.
How much do head of designs make in California?
Head of designs in California earn a median of about $137,780 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $81,500 for the lowest 10% to over $249,210 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire head of designs in California?
Employers hiring head of designs in California right now include Adobe, Front, and Kikoff, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of October 2026. California's concentration of technology headquarters, streaming studios, and consumer-brand companies means design leadership roles turn over regularly, particularly in the Bay Area and Los Angeles corridors.
Which California cities have the most head of design jobs?
The California cities with the most head of design openings are San Francisco, San Jose, and Palo Alto. San Francisco and the broader Bay Area dominate because of the density of technology product companies headquartered there, while Los Angeles draws heavily from entertainment, streaming, and direct-to-consumer brands, and San Diego adds volume through its growing biotech and defense-adjacent tech sector.
Are there remote head of design jobs in California?
Yes, and more than most leadership roles. About 50% of head of design openings tied to California are remote or hybrid as of October 2026, reflecting the desk-based and collaborative-digital nature of design leadership work. The parts of the role most commonly done remotely include design reviews, stakeholder presentations, and roadmap planning, while on-site presence is more common during hiring cycles and major product launches.
How can I get hired as a head of design in California with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is moving into a lead or principal designer role first rather than applying directly to head of design positions. Large California tech companies such as Google, Salesforce, and Meta run structured associate and new-grad design programs in the Bay Area that build the cross-functional credibility hiring managers expect. Building a portfolio that shows systems thinking and team mentorship, even informally, and targeting design manager openings at mid-size California startups gives candidates the leadership proof points needed to step into a head of design role within a few years.
Where can I find and apply to head of design jobs in California?
You can find and apply to head of design jobs in California on Migrate Mate, which lists current California openings updated regularly. Find the roles that fit your experience and location, then apply directly to each one.
See All 14 Head Of Design Jobs in California
Find roles in California that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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