The posting
Swarm Aero is redefining air power, building the largest swarming UAV and the most versatile swarming aircraft network in the world. The company is moving quickly to launch the first aircraft designed specifically for swarming, as well as the Command & Control software to mobilize swarms of thousands of heterogeneous autonomous assets and empower human operators to achieve superhuman results.
The team has created and exited multiple startups, negotiated defense deals worth billions of dollars, and designed and built 30+ novel aircraft, with aerospace experience from Scaled Composites, Airbus, Archer Aviation, Blue Origin, and Boom Supersonic.
Mission
Turn clear product direction into exceptional, implementation-ready product experiences.
This role exists to dramatically increase the speed at which product ideas become real. You will work directly with the Head of Product to take written product specifications, workflow descriptions, existing product patterns, screenshots, and rough Figma-frame descriptions and turn them into polished, coherent, buildable designs.
This is a highly execution-oriented design role. We are looking for someone who can move quickly from concept to detailed UI without requiring constant direction or extensive design ceremonies.
What You’ll Own
- Translate detailed product specifications into high-quality Figma designs.
- Design workflows for complex command-and-control and operational software.
- Take rough frame descriptions and independently determine layout, hierarchy, interaction details, and edge cases.
- Build and maintain reusable Figma components and patterns.
- Maintain consistency across the product as new capabilities are introduced.
- Work closely with engineering to ensure designs are understood and implementable.
- Review implemented functionality and identify discrepancies between design intent and the built product.
- Help evolve the overall UX architecture of Legion as the product expands.
- Rapidly iterate based on operator, engineering, and customer feedback.
- Fill in reasonable UX details independently rather than requiring every interaction to be explicitly specified.
What Great Looks Like
You receive a well-written product spec and a description of the required Figma frames.
You understand the intent quickly.
You identify the handful of questions that actually matter.
Then you disappear for a period of focused work and come back with something substantially better than what was described.
The resulting Figma should be clear enough that engineering can build from it, polished enough to show a customer, and thoughtful enough that the Head of Product does not need to design every interaction personally.
The Person We’re Looking For
You are an unusually strong individual contributor.
You are fast.
You have excellent product judgment and visual judgment.
You are comfortable designing dense, information-rich software rather than only simple consumer applications.
You enjoy receiving strong product direction and turning it into an excellent finished experience.
You are comfortable making decisions independently when requirements do not specify every detail.
You can distinguish between a product question that requires escalation and a design detail that you should simply solve.
You communicate clearly with engineers and product leaders.
You care about craft, but you do not allow perfectionism to slow down execution.
Particularly Valuable Experience
Experience with any of the following would be especially valuable:
- Command-and-control systems
- Aerospace or defense software
- Robotics or autonomous systems
- Geospatial interfaces
- Mission planning software
- Industrial or operational software
- Gaming interfaces
- Complex dashboards
- Design systems
- Human-machine interfaces
- Software used in time-sensitive or safety-critical environments
What This Role Is Not
This is not primarily a branding role.
It is not primarily a UX research role.
It is not a role centered around workshops, design-thinking exercises, or producing large amounts of process documentation.
Those capabilities can be useful, but the core requirement is simple:
You must be exceptionally good at turning product intent into excellent software designs quickly.
Success After 6 Months
- Product specifications routinely move into Figma without the Head of Product personally designing them.
- Engineering receives clearer and more complete designs.
- Legion has stronger UX consistency across features.
- Design iteration cycles become significantly faster.
- The Head of Product spends more time on strategy, customers, and product decisions, and less time producing individual screens.
ITAR requirement
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Swarm Aero is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and make employment decisions without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, or disability.
What We Offer
- Meaningful equity in a high-growth defense technology company
- Competitive base salary commensurate with experience
- Medical, dental, vision, and 401k
- PTO and paid sick leave
- Monthly wellness stipend
- Daily catered lunch (office)
- Paid parental leave
- Direct impact on a critical national security mission
- A world-class team of engineers and operators solving genuinely hard problems
