Job Description:
VW. Two letters. Endless opportunities. A bright future.
Innovation. Sophistication. Optimization. This is our Passion.
Worldwide, the Volkswagen Group has a long tradition of dramatic innovations. The Volkswagen Group with its headquarters in Wolfsburg is one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers and the largest carmaker in Europe. The Group comprises twelve brands from seven European countries: Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN. Here in the US, we are blending German engineering with American ingenuity.
At the Innovation & Engineering Center California (IECC), we represent the Volkswagen Group in applied research and development. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, we create bold new ideas for the Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Bugatti and Porsche brands. We’re a team of engineers, designers, scientists, and psychologists looking to develop innovations for future generations of cars, and to transfer technologies from many industries and research institutions into the automotive domain. Our mission is to drive change which means we are not only impacting one of the world’s largest car makers, but also the lives of millions of people. Are you ready to join us?
UX Designer
Role Summary
The ICC focuses on research and development of leading-edge technologies with the goal to meet the future mobility needs of the Volkswagen Group customer. The ICC also works to test and validate North American vehicle systems to improve and localize those products for the market.
Usability (“UX”) work at the ICC has always spanned these diverse goals of the ICC teams. Our value as UX designer to the ICC is to support the customer experience at all stages of the product development process, from blue-sky concept ideation to benchmark usability testing of our products on market versus competitors’ products. The goal of the ICC UX program centers on a core aspect of the ICC’s mission statement: “improving the customer experience.”
Role Responsibilities
Usability Program Development and Management
- To sustainably bring ideas to life.
- Defines scope, timeline, and deliverables.
- Tracks project timeline and resources.
- Aligns individual goals with team goals, and ICC vision/mission.
- Helps to contribute to the ICC design specific cluster performance metrics.
- Drives work with Team Leaders at ICC to insert best-practices UX into team roadmaps.
- Drive the work with partners across the Brands and Volkswagen Group to standardize and improve UX.
- Transfers actionable improvements for improving customer experience to the relevant parties within Volkswagen Group.
- Presents project/progress reports and presentations to top management, mentors, partners, and project affiliates.
- Initiates, organizes and leads management, PR, and Lobbying meetings at the ICC.
Network Development
- Secures internal project funding for initiatives from the Brands and Volkswagen Group.
- Expands network between Volkswagen Group and local Tier 1, Tier 2, and Universities.
Resource Management
- Helps to strategically organize personnel around usability activities at ICC.
- Facilitates networking opportunities for team members.
- Provides research, design, and engineering skill development opportunities for group members.
Strategic Management
- Secures intellectual property and develops roadmaps with an automotive focus.
- Manages portfolio of intellectual property in the field.
- Leads research and development activities to improve vehicle systems across all functions.
Qualifications
Education
Required
Desired
Skills
- Communication skills.
- Problem solving skills.
- Create Concepts from Scratch that solve a human problem or need.
- Analytical skills.
- Conceptual thinking skills.
- Computer savvy.
- Excellent knowledge of UX research methods and advanced statistical analysis.
- Integration - joining people, processes or systems.
- Broad knowledge of full vehicle interrelationships.
- Verbal and writing skills.
Required
Specialized Skills:
- Proven experience supporting all stages of the product design process to create from scratch to final product.
- High level of engagement and self-initiative.
- Focus on customer orientation.
- Working to solve complex problems in UX design to address internal and external customer needs.
- Strong storytelling abilities when laying out work.
Desired
- Strong UX and Human Factors methods expertise.
- Proven leadership skills and project management experience in interdisciplinary and inter-organizational teams.
Work Flexibility
- International and domestic travel to meet with internal/external partners.
- Travel for internal and external shows for communication of project progress, results, and transfer.
