UX/UI Design Manager

Introduction: A Career at HARMAN Automotive

We’re a global, multi-disciplinary team that’s putting the innovative power of technology to work and transforming tomorrow. At HARMAN Automotive, we give you the keys to fast-track your career.

• Engineer audio systems and integrated technology platforms that augment the driving experience
• Combine ingenuity, in-depth research, and a spirit of collaboration with design and engineering excellence
• Advance in-vehicle infotainment, safety, efficiency, and enjoyment

About the Role

As a UX/UI Design Manager within the Harman Automotive Design Team, you will be responsible for leading UX/UI design activities across multiple automotive product areas and platforms for a key Japanese OEM partner, working primarily on-site in Tokyo. This role is not limited to branded car audio solutions; instead, it spans a broad range of Harman automotive UX/UI design solutions, which may vary significantly depending on customer needs, programs, and divisions.

You will lead UX/UI direction from early concept through production, ensuring clarity, usability, and executional quality while aligning design intent with software development, engineering constraints, and delivery timelines. The role requires strong hands-on design leadership, excellent communication, and deep collaboration with OEM stakeholders, Harman internal teams, and external partners.

A critical success factor is the ability to operate fluently in Japanese and English, understand and navigate Japanese OEM culture, and proactively align and update a global stakeholder network. You will work closely with teams in Japan, China, US and India, acting as a central UX/UI coordination point within a complex, distributed automotive environment.

What You Will Do

• Lead UX/UI design across diverse automotive programs and Harman product domains, adapting design solutions based on OEM requirements, platform constraints, and project scope.
• Serve as the primary UX/UI design interface for the Japanese OEM, working extensively on-site, conducting design discussions, workshops, and reviews in Japanese.
• Own UX/UI direction across the full development lifecycle, from early vision and concept definition to series-production support and implementation alignment.
• Work closely with software development, engineering, and product teams to ensure UX/UI concepts are technically feasible, clearly specified, and correctly implemented.
• Collaborate actively with global Harman teams, including design, development, and product colleagues in Japan, China, and India, ensuring clear communication, transparency, and smooth cross-region handover.
• Provide clear, structured, and proactive design communication and status updates to customers and internal stakeholders, ensuring shared understanding of goals, progress, risks, and decisions.
• Lead, mentor, and support UX/UI designers by setting direction, reviewing work, providing feedback, and fostering strong collaboration across distributed teams.
• Create, review, and communicate UX/UI concepts, flows, wireframes, specifications, and high-fidelity designs using Figma as the primary design tool.
• Support and lead customer alignment through on-site visits, design workshops, joint reviews, and co-creation sessions.
• Coordinate and align with third-party partners, agencies, and suppliers where required, ensuring quality, consistency, and alignment with Harman and OEM expectations.
• Drive usability, clarity, and experience quality by applying feedback from customer reviews, internal evaluations, and testing activities.
• Balance creative ambition with real-world automotive constraints, demonstrating strong judgment when navigating trade-offs between UX quality, technical limitations, timelines, and customer requirements.

What You Need

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in UX/UI Design, Interaction Design, Industrial Design, or a related discipline.
• 7+ years of professional UX/UI design experience, including responsibility for leading UX/UI work across complex digital or embedded systems; experience managing or mentoring designers is strongly preferred.
• Fluent Japanese (business-level) with strong understanding of Japanese corporate and OEM working culture.
• Fluent English (working level) for daily collaboration with global Harman teams and stakeholders.
• Proven experience working directly with Japanese OEMs in automotive or embedded environments; this is a key requirement for the role.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end UX/UI work across varying scopes, showing clear thinking, user-centered design, and production-ready execution.
• Advanced proficiency in Figma for UX/UI design, collaboration, documentation, and stakeholder communication.
• Solid experience working closely with software development and engineering teams, ensuring alignment between UX/UI intent and technical implementation.
• Excellent communication skills, with a strong ability to align, coordinate, and regularly update customers and internal stakeholders.
• Experience working with distributed and international teams, including collaboration with colleagues in US, China and India.
• Strong soft skills, including stakeholder management, cultural sensitivity, structured problem-solving, and calm, pragmatic leadership in complex environments.

What Is Nice to Have

• Experience across multiple Harman automotive divisions or product areas, rather than a single specialized domain.
• Hands-on experience leading on-site OEM design workshops and joint alignment sessions in Japan.
• Exposure to motion design, system behavior, or time-based UX in automotive contexts.
• Familiarity with Unity or real-time visualization for concept, prototype, or future UX work.
• Experience coordinating work with external agencies or suppliers in an automotive environment.
• Interest in modern UX workflows, design efficiency, and emerging tools that support collaboration and quality.

What Makes You Eligible

• Ability and willingness to work on-site in Tokyo Ariake with regular presence at the OEM location.
• Willingness to travel up to 10%, domestically and internationally, as required by projects and customer needs.
• Strong ability to work in a global, cross-cultural environment, bridging design, development, and customer perspectives.
• Eligibility to work in Japan and comply with all local employment, compliance, and background screening requirements.
• Availability for short-notice on-site support when required by program or customer needs.
• Valid driving license and clean driving record where customer or Harman vehicle use is required.

What We Offer

• We offer an authentic, diverse, equal, and inclusive work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development in a truly global organization.
• You will work on products and services that touch people’s lives and will change the industrial standards, being a part of the transformations in our industry.
• Our work environments are fast paced, challenging, empowering, collaborative, flexible and exciting.
• We offer our own HARMAN University with regular updates on the new technologies and trends by utilizing various sessions organized by Self Learning and Development Trainings to help grow and advance talent.
• We offer competitive compensation/benefit programs and recognition programs.

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