Dream Job Chief Automotive Interior Designer

Job Description: Chief Automotive Interior Designer
A position for a true visionary, the Chief Automotive Interior Designer leads the company’s UX department in creating optimized user-centric solutions for the next generation of automobiles—focusing on self-driving cars. Working for a company that has pioneered the self-driving car concept, the Chief Automotive Interior Designer thinks of CAD designs as an extension of her own brain. With UX always at the forefront of the imagination, the Chief Automotive Interior Designer collaborates with other members of the UX team in automotive engineering.
The Chief Automotive Interior Designer understands the revolutionary concept of the self-driving car, particularly in the fact that it liberates space within the vehicle and radically transforms the user experience. Qualified candidates can do 3D and CAD in their sleep, and most importantly, can communicate, collaborate, and lead a team to transform your visions into fruition. Given the multifaceted nature of self-driving car design and technology, the Chief Automotive Interior Designer will work within the intersections of design, product engineering, and marketing. Background experience will be firmly within the OEM automobile manufacturing and design sector. The Chief Automotive Interior Designer drives new product design, allowing the company to convey its values through the cultivation of a unique and unparalleled user experience that sets the brand apart from the competition.
Compensation and Benefits Package
As Gupta & Shaw (2014) point out, the literature on human resources management lacks quantitative analyses of effective employee compensation packages and their importance in stimulating motivation, engagement, and performance. Based on the emerging literature on employee motivation, benefits, and appraisal methods, the following compensation and benefits packages is offered to the successful Chief Automotive Interior Designer candidate.
Pay
Base annual salary starting at $95,000, with potential for growth. The Chief Automotive Interior Designer is not a member of the senior management team but is a leadership role within the organization. The annual salary is considerably higher than the median for automobile designers in general because this is a specialized role with unique creative skills that may reflect on the future of the brand. Moreover, the Chief Automotive Interior Designer is not someone who sits in front of the screen and churns out designs on demand; rather, the individual possesses remarkable and pragmatic communications and leadership skills, and is expected to consult with senior management on a regular basis. The Chief Automotive Interior Designer also communicates new visions directly to the shareholders, as well as to the engineering team. Furthermore, the Chief Automotive Interior Designer is someone who creates and maintains a unified message through visual and spatial relations. Because self-driving cars break out of the standard automobile concept, the interior design will start new trends and establish this company as the industry leader. Therefore, the Chief Automotive Interior Designer is someone who is indispensible, whose creative vision is integral to the success of the organization as a whole. The right designer will participate in new product design and therefore ensure the future success of the self-driving car division and of the organization as a whole.
Benefits
The Chief Automotive Interior Designer will receive a full health benefits package. Even as a slew of similar companies are slashing employee benefits, this company believes in health maintenance as a necessity. In fact, the organization has recently partnered with a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), which offers the employee the widest range of options and freedom in health care decisions. The employee has the option to participate in a high deductible health plan in exchange for additional health benefits including extended coverage for complementary medicine. However, the company does provide the Chief Automotive Interior Designer with a full range of extended coverage already including a dental and eye care plan, with a $800 flex spending account that can be used for massage, physical therapy, and other complementary and preventative care options.
Retirement Fund
The organization offers all employees the option to participate in the 401K program, and employees are encouraged to do so.
Equity
What sets this organization apart is the offering of equity to all employees. All employees receive shares in the organization and are strongly encouraged to attend shareholder meetings to make a difference in the future of the organization.
Vacation Time
Employees are entitled to a total of six weeks vacation time per year, taken at no more than three weeks in one fiscal quarter. Vacation time cannot be banked and do not roll over to the following fiscal year, so employees are encouraged to use their vacation time each year. The Chief Automotive Interior Designer may experience ebbs and flows in their work, and are expected to work diligently during peak project design periods and to take their vacations following product releases and at lulls in the production schedule. In addition to the generous vacation time offered, the company also has a robust Paid Sabbatical option for interested employees.
Paid Sabbatical
Members of the UX team are encouraged to apply for paid sabbaticals, offered to employees once every four years. Employees must submit an application to the Human Resources department outlining the purpose of their sabbatical and detailing how and why it reflects on their work, such as by learning about new approaches to automotive design or learning about a new market in order to bring back ideas the UX team can implement. Paid sabbatical periods will be offered in three or six month periods, and employees are required to deliver weekly progress reports and/or other tangible deliverables. Paid sabbaticals can be combined with the training and development options and/or participation in the organization’s humanitarian corporate social responsibility programs.
Training and Development Options
All employees can apply for training and development programs offered at qualified universities. The training and development programs do need to reflect the employee’s career trajectory, and must be completed at institutions that have been approved by the organization.
Maternity/Paternity Leave
All employees are entitled to paid maternity and paternity leave with the option to telecommute for a transitional period.
Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal traditionally serves three goals in the organization: (a) offering feedback to employees; (b) providing clear direction for change; (c) outlining the parameters of future roles, tasks, and functions in the organization (Levinson, 1976). Therefore, performance appraisals are valuable for the employee, clarifying roles and expectations and preventing miscommunications between the employee, coworkers, and supervisors. Performance appraisals are also crucial for evidence-based alignments of employee behaviors and performance measures on the one hand and organizational goals on the other. To be maximally effective, performance appraisals need to be perceived of as fair by the employee, and hinge on the employee’s relationship with supervisors (Dusterhoff, Cunningham & MacGregor, 2013).
The Chief Automotive Interior Designer is a new position, with a radical role within the organization. Driving the UX team, and integrating with the product engineering and marketing departments, the Chief Automotive Interior Designer is new territory for the organization. Therefore, the performance appraisals will be rough around the edges and the employee is therefore urged to offer suggestions for improvement based on perceptions of fairness and relevance, as well as “moral justifiability,” (Dusterhoff, Cunningham & MacGregor, 2013, p. 265). The primary components of the performance appraisal will include performance outcomes, measured by consumer feedback; communications skills, measured by surveys with key employees and members of the team; and overall job competencies. Standard skills such as project management, organization, and managerial or leadership skills will also be assessed using self-reports and surveys with other members of the UX team. Finally, the employee is expected to be dedicated to personal and professional growth and development. Appraisal will include an assessment of the employee’s participation in development and training programs, and the quality of the sabbatical time taken.
Element 1: Feedback
Feedback methods must be formalized in order to be effective and fair, with specific training offered to supervisors and all members of the appraisal team (Levinson, 1976). Constructive feedback is specific, framed in positive ways that encourage employees to build on strengths and strengthen weaknesses in a supportive environment. Human resource managers offer feedback seminars that help create a supportive feedback mechanism. Moreover, employees learn how to offer feedback to their supervisors without fear of reprisal. The feedback system is offered in two ways: ongoing anonymous reviews online and more direct feedback offered in meetings and one-on-one interactions. The goal is to create a system whereby feedback is freely given in ways that precludes putting any employee on the defensive, encouraging all members of the organization to focus on shared goals and meeting their performance objectives.
Element 2: Quantitative Outcomes
The Chief Automotive Interior Designer drives the UX for self-driving cars and is therefore instrumental in shaping the success of the technology itself. Well-executed interior designs will establish the company’s brand as being the industry leader. Performance appraisals are therefore rooted in measurable outcomes, such as total sales of the self-driving cars in different market segments. The quantitative outcomes will demonstrate areas that need improvement, helping the Chief Automotive Interior Designer understand how to capitalize on user feedback. Quantitative outcomes take some of the unnecessary and undesirable subjectivity out of the performance appraisal process (Levinson, 1976).
Element 3: Self-Assessment
The self-assessment component of the performance appraisal encourages introspection and honesty. During self-assessment, the employee also recognizes disconnections between self-concept and performance appraisals by coworkers and supervisors. The process of self-assessment also helps the employee to remain committed to long-term growth and development within the organization, allows the Chief Automotive Interior Designer to choose the appropriate personal and professional development programs, and stimulates creativity within the UX department as a whole—which is ultimately the goal of the position.










References
Dusterhoff, C., Cunningham, J.B. & MacGregor, J.N. (2013). The effects of performance rating, leader-member exchange, perceived utility, and organizational justice on performance appraisal satisfaction. Journal of Business Ethics 119(2): 265-273.
Gupta, N. & Shaw, J.D. (2014). Employee compensation: the neglected area of HRM research. Human Resource Management Review 24(1): 1-4.
Levinson, H. (1976). Appraisal of what performance? Harvard Business Review. July 1976 https://hbr.org/1976/07/appraisal-of-what-performance