(Creative / Senior / Lead) Interior Designer
General Motors · Shanghai
Job Description
Work Arrangement
This role is categorized as on-site. Successful candidates are expected to work full time from the GM China Advanced Technical Center in Shanghai, China.
About GM China Design Studio
GM China Design Studio is both a production design studio and an advanced design studio. We shape meaningful vehicle experiences for GM brands serving customers in China and global markets, connecting near-term production programs with forward-looking exploration.
We are committed to creating an exceptional design environment where creativity, beauty, craftsmanship, and storytelling can thrive. Our designers work across disciplines and cultures to translate customer understanding, brand identity, emerging technologies, and new forms of mobility into compelling interior experiences.
About This Evergreen Requisition
This evergreen requisition is established for talent pipelining purposes. GM China Design Studio is building a long-term pipeline of exceptional Interior Designers across multiple levels, including Creative Designer, Senior Interior Designer, and Lead Interior Designer, in support of current and anticipated business needs.
We welcome applications from outstanding designers around the world who are interested in contributing to exciting production programs and advanced design work in our China studio. Depending on business needs and the candidate’s experience, future opportunities may involve different levels of responsibility, program scope, and creative leadership.
When submitting your application, please include:
- An updated resume or CV.
- An updated portfolio that clearly demonstrates your design thinking, creative process, visual communication, and relevant interior design capabilities.
- Please ensure that your portfolio does not contain undisclosed, confidential, proprietary, or otherwise sensitive information, projects, or materials belonging to current or previous employers or clients.
After your application is submitted, our recruiting and design teams will review your materials. If there is alignment with a current or future opportunity, a recruiter will contact you to discuss potential next steps. Because this is an evergreen requisition, the timing of contact may vary according to business needs and the fit between your experience and upcoming opportunities.
If you do not meet every element listed below but are interested in exploring an opportunity with GM China Design Studio, we still encourage you to apply. We value distinctive creative perspectives, strong design potential, and the ability to contribute to a collaborative studio environment.
The Role -
Interior Designers in GM China Design Studio help define the future of in-vehicle experiences for China and global markets. Depending on level and experience, you may contribute to or lead interior design themes from early advanced exploration through production execution, creating solutions that are emotionally compelling, brand-relevant, user-centered, and technically achievable.
You will collaborate with designers and partners across UX/HMI, CMF, Studio Engineering, Vehicle Systems Engineering, Product Planning, Customer Research, and global design studios. The scope of your contribution may range from developing design proposals and visual narratives to directing programs, presenting to senior leadership, and mentoring other designers.
What You’ll Do
Your responsibilities may include the following, depending on your level, experience, and assigned program:
Creative Designer-level contribution
- Develop interior design concepts, sketches, renderings, storyboards, and visual narratives under the guidance of more experienced designers.
- Explore alternative design themes and spatial ideas that respond to brand direction, customer needs, technology opportunities, and program objectives.
- Communicate interior concepts through strong 2D visualization, digital tools, VR/3D presentations, and other appropriate design media.
- Support the development of interior proposals from early ideation toward digital models, CAS, clay, or other design representations.
- Participate in design reviews, research activities, VR evaluations, and cross-functional discussions; incorporate feedback into refined design solutions.
- Build understanding of design feasibility, ergonomics, safety, regulatory requirements, manufacturing processes, craftsmanship, and surface quality.
Senior Designer-level contribution
- Independently develop and advance interior themes for assigned advanced or production programs, from early sketches through refined digital or physical design representations.
- Translate brand strategy, China customer insights, competitive references, and technology roadmaps into differentiated interior concepts and cohesive customer experiences.
- Create and communicate high-quality sketches, renderings, storyboards, digital models, VR/3D presentations, and design proposals that clearly explain spatial concepts, UX flows, materials, and atmosphere.
- Partner with UX/HMI and CMF designers to integrate displays, lighting, controls, materials, sound, and other elements into a holistic interior experience.
- Work with Studio Engineering, Vehicle Systems Engineering, Packaging, and other partners to balance creative ambition with feasibility, manufacturability, safety, ergonomics, regulatory requirements, quality, timing, and cost.
- Prepare and present design proposals in studio reviews, Design Leadership Team reviews, Global Design Reviews, executive forums, and other program gateways.
- Support customer clinics, design research, and VR evaluations by helping define stimuli, interpreting feedback, and translating learnings into actionable design directions.
- Contribute to a collaborative studio culture by sharing expertise and providing informal guidance to less experienced designers when appropriate.
Lead Designer-level contribution
- Define and drive the creative direction of assigned interior programs across advanced and production design phases, from early exploration through design freeze and production execution.
- Establish clear design strategies and differentiated interior themes that express GM brand DNA while responding to China-specific customer needs, market dynamics, and innovation opportunities.
- Direct the development and integration of interior design proposals across spatial experience, UX/HMI, CMF, lighting, controls, materials, sound, and other relevant domains.
- Lead design alignment with Studio Engineering, Vehicle Systems Engineering, Packaging, Product Planning, Customer Research, and global design studios to deliver solutions that are compelling, feasible, and program-ready.
- Represent GM China Design in key studio reviews, Design Leadership Team reviews, Global Design Reviews, customer clinics, VR evaluations, and executive design forums.
- Guide design direction, review work, provide constructive feedback, and mentor designers across different experience levels.
- Drive design deliverables and decision-making through the applicable Design GVDP process, maintaining alignment on timing, quality, craftsmanship, and leadership expectations.
- Champion China-specific insights and innovation while supporting consistency with global brand language and design standards.
- Contribute to advanced and exploratory work involving future cockpit concepts, new interaction models, AI- or data-enabled experiences, and emerging in-cabin technologies.
Contributions shared across levels
- Maintain a strong awareness of automotive interior design, customer behavior, competitive benchmarks, design trends, materials, digital tools, and emerging technologies.
- Apply a user-centered design mindset to different in-vehicle scenarios and customer needs.
- Uphold high standards for proportion, composition, craftsmanship, surface quality, visual communication, and overall design coherence.
- Engage constructively in a diverse, collaborative, and internationally connected studio environment.
- Demonstrate discretion and respect for intellectual property and confidential information throughout the design process.
Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications) :
We welcome designers with different career paths, backgrounds, and levels of experience. The following qualifications are intended to describe the capabilities that may be relevant to these opportunities rather than serve as a checklist that every applicant must fully satisfy.
- A degree in Transportation Design, Automotive Design, Industrial Design, or a related discipline; equivalent professional experience and a compelling portfolio may also be considered.
- Experience in automotive, transportation, mobility, industrial, product, spatial, experience, or another closely related design field. The depth of experience expected will vary by level, from emerging design talent to experienced program and team leaders.
- The ability to develop relevant and distinctive design concepts, themes, and proposals, with a clear connection between design intent, user experience, brand expression, and execution.
- Strong 2D visual communication skills, including sketching, rendering, storytelling, presentation, and the ability to communicate design thinking clearly.
- Experience with digital design tools, 3D visualization, digital modeling, VR, CAS, clay, or other methods used to develop and communicate interior design concepts. The specific toolset is less important than the quality of the design thinking and the ability to learn and adapt.
- Conceptual thinking and the ability to explore multiple solutions while making clear design decisions.
- An understanding of how interior design interacts with UX/HMI, CMF, engineering, packaging, manufacturing, ergonomics, safety, regulation, quality, and customer research.
- A genuine interest in holistic design and the ability to contribute from early concept development through later-stage design refinement and execution.
- The ability to understand customer needs in different scenarios and use design to improve the in-vehicle experience.
- Strong collaboration and communication skills, including the ability to give and receive feedback in a multicultural and cross-functional environment.
- For more experienced opportunities: the ability to lead program direction, influence stakeholders, present to senior audiences, mentor designers, and connect creative ambition with business and technical realities.
- For emerging opportunities: demonstrated design potential, curiosity, willingness to learn, and the ability to develop ideas through a thoughtful and visually compelling process.
Why Join GM China Design Studio
You will have the opportunity to work in a studio that connects advanced design exploration with real production impact. You will collaborate with colleagues across China and the global GM Design network, contribute to vehicle experiences for diverse customers, and help shape the next generation of automotive interiors through creativity, beauty, technology, and storytelling.
We are interested in meeting exceptional designers at different stages of their careers. Your portfolio, perspective, and potential may align with an opportunity even if your experience does not map perfectly to every item in this description.




About GM
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