UX/UI Designer, Mobile Apps (Contract-to-Hire)

Employment Type: Contract-to-Hire

This position will begin as a contract-to-hire role, with the potential to transition to regular full-time employment based on performance, business needs, and mutual fit.

The contract period is intended to be an ongoing working arrangement and should not be viewed as a freelance project-based engagement.

Note

This is an in-person role.

About Innova

Innova Electronics Corporation is a leading supplier of test equipment and diagnostic reporting products for the automotive aftermarket, offering high-quality products, innovative diagnostics, and value to major automotive retailers. Innova products are researched, developed, and designed at the company’s headquarters in Irvine, California.

Job Description

We are searching for a thoughtful, hands-on Mobile UX/UI Designer to design and improve Innova’s mobile application experiences.

The designer will translate established business objectives, product requirements, new product capabilities, and identified UX problems into clear, intuitive mobile experiences. Depending on the project, the starting point may be a rough concept, an existing flow that needs improvement, or a new capability that needs to be incorporated into the product.

For example, the designer may be asked to improve a high-friction user journey or determine how a newly developed R&D capability should fit into the application based on what it does, why it matters to the user, and relevant business or technical constraints.

The designer is expected to independently work through the appropriate user flow, screen structure, interaction behavior, states, and finished UI without requiring stakeholders to define every screen or transition.

The ideal candidate has strong UX and visual design judgment, can clearly explain the reasoning behind their work, and is comfortable iterating based on feedback, usability findings, and product data.

The role will primarily support two mobile applications: an established application with an existing user base and a newer application centered around a focused core experience. Work will generally involve targeted UX improvements, flow experiments, new features or capabilities, and content additions rather than continuous redesign of the applications.

Scope of the Role

This is a hands-on mobile UX/UI design role.

The designer is responsible for determining how defined product requirements should translate into an effective mobile user experience, including user flows, screen layouts, interaction behavior, visual hierarchy, application states, and development-ready specifications.

This is not a Product Manager, Product Owner, or product-strategy role. The designer does not own company-level product strategy, roadmap prioritization, business priorities, product KPIs, software architecture, engineering delivery, or people management.

Business objectives, feature priorities, and broader product direction will be established by the appropriate business and operations stakeholders. The designer is expected to use strong UX judgment within those defined objectives, raise experience concerns, and recommend better approaches when appropriate. Technical architecture and implementation decisions are owned by the software development team.

This is also not a visual-design-only role. The designer is expected to think through how the complete experience works, including alternate paths, error states, loading states, empty states, confirmations, and other relevant interactions.

The strongest fit is someone who enjoys solving hands-on UX/UI problems rather than someone primarily seeking product strategy ownership, broad product discovery, research leadership, design-team management, or responsibility for a large product portfolio.

Targeted usability checks and UX experiments are in scope when they support a defined product objective or friction point. The role is not expected to run an independent research program or continuously generate redesign work simply to keep the product changing.

Objectives of this Role

• Design and improve user experiences within Innova mobile applications
• Support targeted features, flow experiments, content additions, enhancements, and UX improvements within existing applications
• Help design a newer mobile application from established business and product requirements
• Translate defined business objectives, product requirements, and rough concepts into clear mobile app flows and screens
• Create and refine user flows in collaboration with business and operations teams, including determining the flow when one has not already been defined
• Determine appropriate screen structure, information hierarchy, and interaction behavior
• Design complete user experiences, including:
• Primary user flows
• Alternate paths
• Error states
• Loading states
• Empty states
• Validation states
• Confirmations
• Other relevant user and system states
• Create and maintain consistent design patterns, reusable components, and the mobile app design system
• Produce detailed, development-ready screens and specifications in Figma
• Write clear and intuitive user-facing copy and microcopy
• Apply accessibility and usability fundamentals throughout the design process
• Clearly communicate the reasoning, assumptions, and tradeoffs behind design decisions
• Use practical usability checks, targeted flow experiments, available user feedback, and product data when appropriate to determine whether designs are understandable and usable
• Improve and iterate on designs based on feedback and usability findings
• Work with the Vietnam software development team to answer design questions and resolve UX or edge-case questions during implementation
• Review implemented screens when needed to clarify design intent and help maintain consistency
• Help maintain a consistent visual and interaction language across the mobile application

Skills and Qualifications

• Approximately 3–5 years of experience in UX/UI design, mobile application design, or a related digital design role
• Strong portfolio demonstrating both user experience and interface design
• Strong understanding of:
• User flows
• Information hierarchy
• Interaction design
• Mobile interface design
• Visual design
• Ability to turn established requirements and rough concepts into complete, usable mobile experiences
• Strong ability to explain and support design decisions with clear reasoning
• Comfortable having designs challenged and discussing alternative approaches
• Willingness to revise or replace designs when feedback or evidence supports a better solution
• Ability to think beyond the primary happy path and account for different user and system states
• Strong attention to detail and visual consistency
• Experience creating and maintaining reusable design components and design systems
• Proficiency with Figma
• Ability to create clear designs and specifications for software development teams
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to write concise and understandable user-facing copy
• Understanding of accessibility and usability fundamentals
• Ability to work independently on assigned design problems while collaborating effectively with business, operations, and technical teams
• Strong ownership and follow-through

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing consumer-facing mobile applications
• Experience working on both established products and new application development
• Experience working directly with software development teams
• Experience working with offshore or internationally distributed development teams
• Experience creating or maintaining a mobile design system
• Automotive industry or automotive DIY experience is a plus

What Success Looks Like

A successful designer can receive a defined business objective, product requirement, or improvement area and determine how it should work as a mobile user experience.

They can independently create or improve the user flow, design the necessary screens and interaction states, identify UX gaps or edge cases, and provide the development team with clear designs and specifications.

They can explain why they made particular design decisions while remaining open to feedback and alternative approaches.

They remain available during implementation to answer legitimate design questions and resolve cases that were not anticipated during the initial design work.

Success in this role does not require independently deciding what products the company should build, setting product strategy, owning roadmap prioritization or product KPIs, running a broad product-discovery or research program, or managing the development organization.

Benefits

Upon Conversion to Regular Full-Time Employment

This position begins as a contract-to-hire role. Contractors are not eligible for Innova’s employee benefits during the contract period.

Candidates who transition to regular full-time employment with Innova will be eligible for the company’s employee benefits package, which currently includes:

• Great work environment
• Medical & dental
• 401(k) plan
• Life insurance
• Paid vacation and paid holidays

Compensation

· While Contractor: $59-78/hour, up to 29 hours per week

· Upon Conversion to Regular Full-Time Employment: $90,000–$120,000 annually, plus employee benefits

Pay: $59.00 - $78.00 per hour

Education:

• Bachelor's (Required)

Experience:

• professional software: 1 year (Required)

Work Location: In person