Full-Time
Associate Principal Graphic Designer
Tekion
1,001-5,000 employees
Cloud-native automotive retail platform with DMS
No salary listed
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
In Person
 Art, Graphics & Animation |
|---|
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- 9+ years of hands-on visual and brand design experience in tech or SaaS, with a portfolio that shows clear thinking, strong storytelling, and high craft.
- A track record of leading or managing designers on real projects, with experience owning outcomes, not just visuals.
- Deep expertise in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite, plus comfort exploring new tools for motion, prototyping, and collaboration.
- Proven ability to build and evolve brand identities, logos, and web experiences that can scale across enterprise audiences and channels.
- Strong communication skills with real executive presence: you can defend your work with clarity, invite feedback, and align teams around a shared vision.
- Experience running projects end to end, from brief and discovery through delivery, with a structured approach to planning, prioritizing, and followthrough.
- A habit of staying ahead of design, product, and culture trends, and turning that curiosity into concrete ideas we can ship.
- High personal accountability: you take ownership, push for better outcomes, and hold yourself and others to a strong quality bar.
- Genuine passion for design and storytelling, and a desire to grow a small team into a tight, proud, high-performing creative group.
- Brand Vision & Consistency: You'll maintain our brand's visual standards and build the design systems that keep everything consistent. That means creating guidelines, components, and patterns that work across all platforms - so every project reinforces the brand without starting from scratch.
- End-to-End Creative Leadership: You'll own design projects from start to finish across web, mobile, and marketing campaigns. That means taking concepts from initial ideas through final launch. You'll work with communications, marketing, product, and leadership to create designs that look sharp and move business metrics - whether that's revenue, adoption, or conversion.
- Ideation & Storytelling: You'll research concepts and turn them into working designs. Then you'll present your work to different teams - product, marketing, leadership - and explain the thinking behind your JD - Associate Principle Graphic Designer 1 choices. That means showing why certain design decisions solve specific problems, not just what looks good. You need to make your case clearly whether you're talking to designers or marketers or executives.
- Team Leadership & Growth: You'll manage a small design team and help them grow. That means coaching designers on their projects, giving feedback that improves their work, and building accountability around quality. The goal is creating a design powerhouse where people own their craft and keep getting better at it. Holistic Design Oversight: You'll review all design work before it ships - product interfaces, illustrations, brand materials, presentations, and campaign visuals. That means maintaining quality standards across everything and making sure it all feels consistent. Nothing goes out without your approval.
- Systems & Workflow Innovation: You'll build design systems and workflows that make the team more efficient. As we grow, you'll keep improving how we work - finding ways to move faster without dropping quality. The goal is scaling output while keeping the work sharp.
- Strategic Design Advocacy: You'll represent design in leadership meetings and cross-functional discussions. That means explaining design decisions to executives and showing how they connect to business goals - whether that's Brand perception, revenue, adoption, or user retention. You'll need to make the case for design quality and user experience when priorities compete.
Tekion provides the Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC), a cloud-native SaaS platform for automotive dealers, OEMs, and consumers that unifies sales, CRM, service, parts, F&I, and accounting. It runs in the cloud and is accessible on any device, using AI, ML, and big data to enable personalized upselling, digital retailing, real-time analytics, and workflow automation, breaking data silos across the dealership lifecycle. Unlike traditional, siloed dealer-management systems, ARC is a single integrated platform that connects dealers, OEMs, and customers at scale, backed by unicorn funding and major automotive investors. Its goal is to standardize and modernize automotive retail by providing a scalable platform that improves efficiency, data visibility, and customer experience worldwide.
Company Size
1,001-5,000
Company Stage
Growth Equity (Venture Capital)
Total Funding
$635.1M
Headquarters
Pleasanton, California
Founded
2016
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Volkswagen certification opens deeper dealer workflow adoption across U.S. rooftops.
- REPAY expands ARC into vendor payments and accounts payable automation.
- Tekion's partner cloud supports cross-sell into adjacent dealership software modules.
What critics are saying
- Reynolds and CDK still own switching relationships and incumbent integrations.
- A single dealer data breach would damage trust across ARC's centralized workflows.
- OEM certification failures can delay adoption and weaken Tekion's premium narrative.
What makes Tekion unique
- Jay Vijayan built Tesla's internal ERP and digital systems.
- ARC unifies DMS, CRM, service, F&I, parts, and accounting.
- Tekion is OEM-certified, including Volkswagen's U.S. online service scheduling program.
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Benefits
Competitive compensation and generous stock options
100% employer-paid top-of-the-line medical, dental and vision coverage
Great benefits including unlimited PTO, parental leave and free snacks and beverages
The opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds from Silicon Valley’s most dominant and successful companies
Be part of an early stage, hyper-growth start-up with the opportunity to grow and prosper
Work on the latest and coolest technologies – everything is home-grown and built ground-up
A dynamic work environment with a strong sense of community and collaboration
The open and transparent culture that encourages innovation, rewards performance and discourages hierarchy
Exciting opportunities for career growth and development
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 1%1 year growth
↑ 0%2 year growth
↑ 0%Tekion adds four AI tools, expense partnership. Tekion unveiled four additions to its agentic AI suite and announced a technology partnership aimed at helping dealer groups monitor and process expenses, Auto Remarketing reported. The tools, introduced Tuesday at Tekion's inaugural T1 Pro conference, include T1 Pro, Salesperson AI, F&I Manager AI and an accounts-payable AI capability built on the Tekion AI platform. The rollout targets several high-volume store functions where dealers are pushing for more automation: showroom follow-up, F&I workflow, back-office processing and enterprise expense control. For operators, the relevant question is whether these AI tools reduce manual work without adding process friction for sales staff, finance managers or accounting teams already working across multiple systems. Tekion's move also reflects a broader vendor push to package AI as operational infrastructure rather than a standalone feature. Dealer groups evaluating these products will likely focus on integration with existing DMS and accounting processes, audit controls, user adoption and whether AI recommendations can be tracked and managed at the store and group level. Dealers should watch for deployment timelines, pricing details and early customer results as Tekion moves the four AI additions and the expense-management partnership from conference announcement to store-level implementation. Ready to acquire more vehicles for less? Free for 30 days. No credit card. No contracts. Live in 10 minutes.
Tekion named to Forbes America's Best Startup Employers 2026. Tekion News 09 Apr 2026 Pleasanton, CA, April 9, 2026 - Tekion has been recognized on the Forbes America's Best Startup Employers 2026 list. This prestigious award is presented in collaboration with Statista, a leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider. The list was announced on March 3, 2026, and is available on Forbes' website. America's Best Startup Employers 2026 identifies top-performing startups in the United States through a comprehensive evaluation process based on three key criteria: employer reputation, employee satisfaction, and growth. More than 7 million data points were analyzed across over 20,000 eligible companies, with more than 2,500 qualifying for in-depth review. Ultimately, only 500 companies were selected for inclusion in the final ranking. Tekion's inclusion reflects its continued focus on building a high-performing, people-first organization while driving innovation across automotive retail. As the company continues to scale, it remains committed to fostering a workplace culture centered on transparency, collaboration, and continuous growth. This recognition reinforces Tekion's belief that strong teams and a connected culture are foundational to delivering meaningful impact for customers, partners, and the broader industry. About Statista Statista publishes hundreds of worldwide industry rankings and company listings in collaboration with leading media partners. Its research and analysis are based on the success of statista.com, a leading data and business intelligence platform providing statistics, market data, and consumer insights.
Volie, a provider of automotive BDC software and AI-driven call intelligence, has partnered with Tekion to become a pilot partner for the new Tekion App Store, launching this year. The partnership will enable dealers to purchase Volie solutions directly through Tekion's Automotive Retail Cloud platform. Dealers will be able to subscribe to Volie, Pulse Volie Intelligence and Dealer Identity through the integrated platform, streamlining onboarding, purchasing and data connectivity. The collaboration aims to simplify how dealers buy, deploy and manage technology for their business development centres and customer communications. The Tekion App Store will allow dealers to discover and activate solutions directly within the platform, helping them onboard applications faster and realise value sooner.
Tekion, an AI-native automotive retail platform, unveiled its latest agentic AI capabilities at the 2026 NADA Show in Las Vegas. Founder and CEO Jay Vijayan announced the company achieved over 60% revenue growth in 2025 for its Automotive Retail Cloud platform. The company introduced three new AI agents: Scheduler AI for automated appointment booking, Technician AI for assisting service technicians through voice and visual inputs, and T1, a conversational interface for dealership data. Tekion also launched its App Store as part of Automotive Partner Cloud 2.0. Tekion became one of the first automotive retail platform providers certified with ISO/IEC 42001 for Responsible AI Management Systems. The company announced Tekion One 2026, its inaugural customer conference scheduled for 15–17 June in Las Vegas.
Flai integrates with Tekion to enhance connectivity across the automotive ecosystem. API integration supports data sharing and collaboration for technology partners serving dealers and OEMs. Flai, an AI communications platform for dealerships, today announced an integration with Tekion, innovator of the first end-to-end*, AI-native cloud platform serving the entire automotive retail ecosystem. This collaboration aims to expand the connected partner ecosystem within Tekion's Automotive Partner Cloud (APC), enhancing operational efficiency through enhanced data connectivity. Flai automates communications for dealerships with AI, handling inbound calls, outbound outreach, text messaging, and email to help capture leads, schedule service and sales appointments, and maintain consistent follow-up. Through this partnership with Tekion, dealers can now connect Flai's AI communications platform with Tekion's Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC). This connection helps dealers improve information flow between systems and reduces manual data entry, empowering teams to make faster, more informed decisions. The integration helps dealerships handle every phone call, book more service appointments and sales visits, and follow up with customers and staff through text and email. "Dealerships are looking for ways to handle more customer interactions with less friction," said Ari Polakof, Co-Founder and CEO of Flai. "Integrating Flai with Tekion enables stores to respond instantly to every call and follow up via SMS or email, so staff can focus on delivering a great customer experience." Tekion's ARC is the first and fastest cloud-native platform including all functionalities of a DMS, CRM and accompanying tech stack to run a seamless retail business. Through the ARC platform, Tekion APC brings together a growing network of approved partners focused on driving innovation, efficiency, and choice for dealers. The Flai/Tekion integration within ARC Sales, CRM, Parts and Service supports operational efficiency, simplifies processes, and enhances visibility for dealership staff and consumers alike. About Flai. Flai is an AI-powered communications platform for automotive dealerships. Flai automates inbound and outbound phone calls, text messaging, and email so dealers can capture leads, book more service and sales appointments, and keep follow-ups consistent. About Tekion. Tekion is redefining automotive retail with its end-to-end AI platform purpose-built for the industry. By embedding AI into every workflow, Tekion delivers intelligent automation, real-time insights, and advanced decision support - driving efficiency, revenue, and modern consumer experiences. As the first and fastest cloud-native platform for automotive, Tekion brings OEMs, dealers, partners, and consumers together through its revolutionary suite: Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC) for retailers, Automotive Enterprise Cloud (AEC) for manufacturers and large automotive enterprises, and Automotive Partner Cloud (APC) for technology and industry partners. With AI-powered, cloud-native technology, Tekion enables the most seamless, transparent, and profitable retail experiences in the industry. For more information, visit www.tekion.com. *End-to-end refers to its integrated data management platform covering all automotive business functions. Disclaimer: Tekion does not endorse or recommend any specific partner solution; dealers are encouraged to evaluate and select partners based on their own business needs.