Sr Manager AI UX Systems, Device Design Team

We’re looking for a design leader to join our growing Alexa AI Systems team— someone who is energized by the future of AI-powered products and passionate about shaping both the ideas and the products that bring them to life. This is a blended role, ideal for a design leader who thrives as a hands-on people manager.

You will work at the front lines of invention, crafting product stories that explore bold, new directions in AI, then seeing them through to tangible hardware and software launches. You’ll collaborate closely with cross-functional partners in Industrial Design, Engineering, Research, and Product Management to prototype, test, and scale new experiences that bridge physical and digital design.

Key job responsibilities
• Explore & Define: Lead early-stage concept development that pushes the boundaries of AI-powered interactions across hardware and software.
• Design with Intent: Craft compelling product narratives and user experiences that align emerging technologies with human needs.
• Collaborate Across Disciplines: Work fluidly between atoms and pixels—translating user insights and technical possibilities into integrated designs.
• Prototype & Build: Develop and iterate design solutions through hands-on prototyping and close partnership with engineering.
• Ship Impactful Products: Drive work from concept to execution and contribute to shipped products that customers love.
• Shape the Team: Depending on your track, mentor designers and/or help define the future of the team’s design culture, tooling, and methods.

A day in the life
What You’ll Explore and Influence:
1) Exploring new hardware and software opportunities powered by AI: You’ll lead design team efforts that imagine how AI can reshape the form and function of everyday objects. This goes beyond simply integrating AI into existing devices—it’s
about asking what new kinds of devices should exist because AI exists. You’ll prototype new interaction models that leverage onboard machine learning, edge inferencing, and multimodal sensing to create experiences that feel intuitive,
adaptive, and human. Whether it’s inventing a novel wearable, a context-aware home device, or a hybrid physical-digital tool, you’ll push the boundaries of what’s possible when software intelligence meets hardware invention.
2) Going beyond the traditional GUI:
We’re entering a post-GUI world—one where touchscreens and menus are no longer the center of every interaction. Your work will imagine and design interaction paradigms that leave behind flat screens and point-and-click metaphors. You’ll
explore how voice, gestures, environmental cues, spatial presence, and predictive behavior can become primary interaction methods. You’ll define how interface design evolves when it’s no longer bound by rectangles and pixels, but instead is
embedded in the world around us.
3) Designing for ambient, context-aware interfaces in the smart home: You’ll investigate how ambient computing can turn a smart home into a seamless,
responsive, and emotionally intelligent environment. Instead of users issuing
commands, devices will anticipate needs and respond in nuanced ways—lighting that adjusts with mood, audio systems that follow you room to room, or assistants that speak less but do more. Your design work will focus on subtlety, context-
awareness, and designing systems that listen, learn, and act with minimal friction. You’ll consider ethical design principles, transparency, and user trust in these always-on experiences.
4) Creating a unified interaction model across screens, spaces, and devices:
A key challenge—and opportunity—is building a design system that spans across a diverse ecosystem: from screen-rich devices (like tablets or thermostats) to screenless ones (like speakers, wearables, or embedded objects). You’ll help define how core information, user intent, and feedback persist and adapt as people move
through different contexts—at home, in their car, or out in the world. Your work will
help establish continuity across time, place, and form factor, ensuring a cohesive
experience whether the user is tapping, talking, glancing, or simply moving through
space.
5) Bridging the boundaries between industrial design and interaction design:
This role sits at the intersection of form and function, and you’ll play a pivotal role in
shaping both. You’ll collaborate closely with industrial designers to co-create
physical products where the interaction model is deeply informed by shape,
materials, posture, and affordances. Rather than designing in parallel, you’ll design
in unison—ensuring that how something looks, feels, and responds are part of a
unified system. You’ll help shape a new design where physical and digital
interactions are fully integrated, natural, and human-first.