Senior UX Designer, Kiro

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior UX Designer, Kiro

Company: Amazon

Location: Seattle, Washington, United States

Job Type: Full-time

Category: UX Design / Product Design

Date Posted: 2026-09-03

Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level (7+ years)

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the end-to-end user experience design for Kiro, an agentic AI platform from AWS, focusing on innovative interaction paradigms for autonomous agent development.

• Drive the design strategy and execution for Kiro Crew (open-source persistent development workspace) and the Kiro Mobile experience, tackling unique design challenges for developer audiences.

• Translate complex research insights into actionable design strategies, including concept modeling, ecosystem mapping, and user story development, to inform long-term product direction.

• Champion the voice of the developer by collaborating closely with product, engineering, and executive leadership to identify and implement user-centric improvements.

• Shape the future of software development by designing intuitive and trustworthy interfaces for AI-driven tools that empower millions of developers.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is situated within the cutting-edge field of "agentic development," requiring a deep understanding of how developers interact with AI that autonomously plans, executes, and verifies code. The focus on Kiro Crew and Mobile suggests a need for expertise in both open-source collaboration environments and cross-platform mobile UX.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Conduct and synthesize user research to build comprehensive mental models of developer workflows and adoption patterns for agentic AI tools.

• Lead concept design and early-stage framing activities, including ecosystem maps, concept models, user stories, journey frameworks, and experience principles.

• Own and drive the end-to-end design process for major features across the Kiro platform, encompassing IDE, CLI, Web, Mobile, and Kiro Crew.

• Shape the user experience of agentic workflows, including spec-driven development, autonomous mode, parallel agents, hooks, and correctness verification.

• Iterate rapidly and prototype at the appropriate fidelity, utilizing a range of tools and methods from sketches to interactive prototypes, to test and refine designs.

• Design cohesive and consistent experiences across desktop, terminal, browser, mobile, and open-source surfaces, respecting the unique interaction paradigms of each.

• Partner with product management and engineering teams to influence product strategy through strong design rationale and clear customer advocacy.

• Mentor junior designers, contribute to design system development, and define scalable design patterns to elevate the overall UX quality within the team.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize a holistic approach to design, extending beyond UI execution to strategic framing, research synthesis, and cross-platform consistency. The mention of "agentic workflows" and "autonomous mode" highlights the unique nature of designing for AI that acts independently.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is listed, a strong foundation in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Design, or a related field is implied by the experience and portfolio requirements.

Experience: A minimum of 7 years of professional design experience is required, with a significant portion dedicated to complex, early-stage design challenges.

Required Skills:

• A robust portfolio showcasing deep audience understanding and early-stage design thinking, including concept models, ecosystem maps, user stories, and experience frameworks.

• Proven ability to translate research findings into comprehensive design strategies, not just polished UI mockups.

• Expertise in designing complex, multi-step workflows across multiple platforms or surfaces, demonstrating strong information architecture and interaction design skills.

• Experience designing for products where AI acts with meaningful autonomy, moving beyond simple chatbot interfaces to systems that plan, execute, and verify work on behalf of users.

• Proficiency with multiple prototyping tools and methods, coupled with the judgment to select the most effective fidelity and approach for each specific problem.

• Ability to conduct and synthesize user research to inform design decisions and build rich mental models of target audiences.

• Strong collaboration and communication skills to partner effectively with product management, engineering, and executive leadership. Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing cross-platform experiences, ensuring seamless user journeys across diverse devices and environments.

• Demonstrated ability to work with stakeholders to plan and execute strategic programs.

• Experience designing for developer tools, Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), command-line products, or open-source developer experiences.

• A track record of flexibly adapting design processes and methods to suit the specific problem at hand, embracing agile and iterative approaches.

• Familiarity with agentic AI concepts and their implications for user experience design.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Basic Qualifications" strongly emphasize early-stage design thinking and the ability to design for AI autonomy, distinguishing this role from typical UI design positions. The "Preferred Qualifications" highlight domain-specific experience in developer tools and open-source environments.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Demonstrations of early-stage design thinking: include examples of concept modeling, ecosystem maps, user stories, and user journey frameworks.

• Case studies that clearly articulate how research insights were synthesized and translated into a cohesive design strategy.

• Examples of designing complex, multi-step workflows across different platforms or surfaces, showcasing information architecture and interaction design proficiency.

• Projects that involve designing for systems where AI acts with significant autonomy, illustrating how you addressed user trust, control, and verification.

• Prototypes at varying fidelities, selected strategically to solve specific design problems, demonstrating adaptability in tool and method selection. Process Documentation:

• Showcase your approach to defining and documenting user flows and interaction patterns for complex, AI-driven systems.

• Provide examples of how you've mapped out user journeys across desktop, mobile, and potentially command-line interfaces.

• Illustrate how you've established design principles and experience frameworks to guide product development in ambiguous early stages.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirements are explicitly geared towards demonstrating early-stage design thinking and the ability to tackle novel design challenges in AI-driven environments, rather than solely showcasing final UI execution.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $137,800 - $186,400 USD Annually

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Health Insurance: Medical, Dental, Vision, Prescription Coverage.

• Basic Life & AD&D Insurance with option for Supplemental Life Plans.

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and Mental Health Support.

• Medical Advice Line.

• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs).

• Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage.

• 401(k) matching program.

• Paid Time Off (PTO).

• Parental Leave.

• Sign-on payments.

• Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).

Working Hours: A standard full-time work week is implied. While not explicitly stated, Amazon typically operates on a 40-hour work week, with flexibility often available depending on team needs and project cycles.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is specific to Seattle, WA, USA. The benefits package is extensive, covering health, financial planning, family support, and equity through RSUs and sign-on bonuses, which are standard for senior roles at Amazon.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology (Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Software Development Tools)

Company Size: Amazon is a large, global technology company with tens of thousands of employees, indicating a vast ecosystem and significant resources.

Founded: Amazon was founded in 1994, bringing a long history of innovation and a culture of customer obsession and continuous improvement.

Team Structure:

• The UX design team is embedded directly within the Kiro product organization, working as a unified team alongside product and engineering.

• Design has a direct seat at the table from strategy through shipping, ensuring strong influence and integration.

• Dedicated UX research support is available, fostering a data-informed design approach.

• The team covers the full Kiro product suite, including IDE, CLI, Web, Mobile, Kiro Crew, the Kiro agent, and platform capabilities, suggesting specialized areas within the team. Methodology:

• A strong emphasis on data-driven design, with decisions grounded in real customer insights informed by close collaboration with UX researchers.

• Iterative and agile design processes, with rapid prototyping and adaptation based on problem, timeline, and team dynamics.

• Collaborative approach to problem-solving, valuing diverse perspectives and individual working styles, with a focus on quality of thinking and impact of outcomes.

• Open sharing of work and mutual support for growth among team members.

Company Website: https://www.amazon.com

📝 Enhancement Note: Amazon's culture is known for its "customer obsession," "bias for action," and "invent and simplify" principles. Within the Kiro team, the embedded nature of design suggests a high degree of autonomy and direct impact. The emphasis on UX research integration highlights a commitment to understanding user needs deeply.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a Senior UX Designer role, indicating a mid-to-senior level position within the design hierarchy. It requires substantial experience and the ability to lead complex projects, mentor others, and influence product strategy.

Reporting Structure: The Senior UX Designer will report to a design lead or manager within the Kiro product organization. They will work closely with Product Managers and Engineering Leads, forming a core product team.

Operations Impact: The impact of this role is significant, as it directly influences the user experience of Kiro, an AWS product aimed at redefining software development. Success means shaping how potentially millions of developers interact with AI, driving adoption and efficiency in a critical technology domain.

Growth Opportunities:

• Specialization: Opportunity to become a deep expert in designing for agentic AI, developer tools, and cross-platform experiences.

• Leadership: Potential to grow into a Principal UX Designer, Design Lead, or Managerial role, overseeing larger initiatives and mentoring more designers.

• Skill Development: Continuous learning in cutting-edge AI technologies, advanced prototyping techniques, and strategic product framing.

• Cross-functional Exposure: Gaining experience in product strategy, engineering collaboration, and executive stakeholder management within a major tech organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role offers a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of AI-driven development tools, providing a high-impact career path with significant potential for specialization and leadership growth within Amazon.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The role is on-site in Seattle, WA, indicating a traditional office-based work environment within Amazon's corporate facilities.

Office Location(s): Seattle, Washington, USA. Amazon has a significant presence in Seattle, offering a vibrant tech hub environment.

Workspace Context:

• The workspace is designed for collaboration, with teams embedded together (design, product, engineering).

• Access to modern design tools and technology is expected, supporting rapid prototyping and iterative design.

• Opportunities for close interaction with UX researchers, product managers, and software engineers are integral to the daily workflow.

• The environment likely fosters innovation and a fast-paced, results-oriented culture characteristic of Amazon.

Work Schedule: A standard 40-hour work week is typical for full-time roles at Amazon. While on-site, there may be some flexibility, but core hours are usually expected for team collaboration and meetings.

📝 Enhancement Note: Working on-site in Seattle provides access to Amazon's extensive resources and a collaborative environment, crucial for a role that requires close partnership with cross-functional teams and potentially hands-on work with prototypes and research.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter will likely review your application and portfolio for basic qualifications and alignment with the role.

• Portfolio Review: Expect a dedicated session where you present your portfolio, focusing on early-stage design thinking, research synthesis, and complex workflow design. Be prepared to discuss your process, challenges, and impact.

• Design Challenge/Case Study: A practical exercise may be given, either as a take-home assignment or an on-site/virtual session, to assess your problem-solving skills, design thinking, and ability to apply your process to a specific challenge relevant to Kiro.

• Team Interviews: You'll likely meet with other designers, product managers, and engineers to assess your collaboration style, communication skills, and cultural fit.

• Leadership Interview: A final interview with a senior leader to discuss your strategic thinking, leadership potential, and overall fit for the role and Amazon.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Process: Clearly articulate your design process, from initial problem definition and research to ideation, iteration, and final execution. Highlight how you arrived at your solutions.

• Showcase Early-Stage Thinking: Emphasize concept models, ecosystem maps, user stories, and experience frameworks. Demonstrate your ability to frame ambiguous problems.

• Highlight AI/Complex Workflows: Include projects that demonstrate your experience designing for complex systems, AI autonomy, or multi-platform experiences. Explain the unique challenges and your solutions.

• Quantify Impact: Where possible, use metrics or qualitative feedback to demonstrate the impact of your design work on user behavior, adoption, or business goals.

• Tailor to Kiro: Research Kiro and agentic AI. Frame your examples to show how your skills and experience are directly applicable to the challenges outlined in the job description.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand Agentic AI: Familiarize yourself with the concepts of agentic AI, autonomous agents, and their implications for user interaction and trust.

• Developer Tooling: If you have experience with developer tools, IDEs, or command-line interfaces, be ready to discuss it. If not, research common patterns and user needs in this space.

• Cross-Platform Design: Prepare to discuss how you ensure consistency and usability across different platforms (desktop, mobile, web, CLI).

• Problem Framing: Practice framing ambiguous problems, identifying key user needs, and outlining potential design approaches.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process at Amazon is known to be rigorous, with a strong emphasis on the Leadership Principles and demonstrating a structured, customer-obsessed approach to design. The portfolio is a critical component, so tailoring it to highlight the specific requirements of this role is paramount.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Prototyping Tools: Proficiency expected in multiple tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, InVision, or similar. The ability to choose the right tool for the job is emphasized.

• Design & Collaboration: Figma is a strong industry standard for collaborative design and prototyping, likely used within the team.

• Research & Synthesis Tools: Tools for user research analysis, affinity mapping, and documentation (e.g., Miro, Dovetail, specialized research platforms).

Analytics & Reporting:

• While not directly a designer's tool, understanding how to interpret analytics and user feedback data is crucial for informing design decisions. Familiarity with tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, or internal Amazon analytics platforms might be beneficial. CRM & Automation:

• Not directly applicable for a UX Designer role, but awareness of how design impacts user flows within broader product ecosystems is important.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis is on proficiency with multiple prototyping tools and methods, suggesting that adaptability and strategic tool selection are more important than mastery of a single platform.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Customer Obsession: Deeply understanding and advocating for the developer user, ensuring their needs are at the forefront of design decisions.

• Invent and Simplify: Finding innovative solutions to complex problems, simplifying intricate workflows into intuitive user experiences.

• Bias for Action: Moving quickly to iterate and prototype, testing ideas and making progress even with incomplete information.

• Ownership: Taking full responsibility for the design of Kiro's user experience, from concept to implementation.

• Deliver Results: Focusing on impactful outcomes that enhance developer productivity and satisfaction with AI-powered tools.

Collaboration Style:

• Integrated Teamwork: Working seamlessly with product managers and engineers as a single, cohesive unit.

• Open Communication: Sharing work openly, providing constructive feedback, and valuing diverse perspectives.

• Research-Informed: Collaborating closely with UX researchers to ensure design decisions are grounded in customer insights.

• Mentorship: Actively mentoring junior designers and contributing to the growth of the design team.

📝 Enhancement Note: Amazon's Leadership Principles are foundational to its culture. This role requires embodying these principles, particularly customer obsession, invention, and ownership, within the context of designing advanced AI developer tools.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Designing for Ambiguity: Navigating the early, undefined stages of agentic AI development, where user needs and best practices are still emerging.

• Building Trust in AI: Designing interfaces that foster confidence and trust in AI systems that autonomously write and validate code.

• Cross-Platform Cohesion: Creating a unified and intuitive experience across vastly different surfaces (IDE, CLI, Mobile, Web, Open Source).

• Defining Novel Workflows: Establishing new interaction paradigms for spec-driven development and autonomous agent steering.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Cutting-Edge AI: Deep immersion in the rapidly evolving field of agentic AI and its application in software development.

• Broad Platform Design: Gaining extensive experience in designing for diverse platforms and interaction models.

• Strategic Influence: Opportunities to shape product strategy and influence the direction of a significant AWS initiative.

• Mentorship & Leadership: Developing leadership skills through mentoring junior designers and potentially leading design initiatives.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are inherent to working on groundbreaking technology. The growth opportunities are significant for designers looking to specialize in AI, complex systems, and cross-platform product development.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you designed a complex workflow for a technically sophisticated audience. What were the key challenges, and how did you approach them?" (Focus on your process, research, and how you handled complexity.)

• "How would you approach building trust in an AI system that is responsible for writing and validating code on behalf of a developer?" (Think about transparency, control, feedback loops, and error handling.)

• "Imagine you need to design a feature for Kiro that allows developers to steer an autonomous agent. What are your initial thoughts on the interaction model and user controls?" (Demonstrate your ability to frame problems and ideate on novel interactions.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "How do Amazon's Leadership Principles, particularly 'Customer Obsession' and 'Invent and Simplify,' influence your design philosophy?" (Prepare examples that align your work with these principles.)

• "Describe your experience working in an embedded design team alongside product and engineering. What are the benefits and challenges?" (Highlight your collaborative approach and understanding of cross-functional dynamics.)

• "How do you ensure your design decisions are grounded in customer insights, especially when dealing with novel technologies?" (Emphasize your research synthesis skills and partnership with UX researchers.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Narrative Arc: Structure your portfolio presentation like a story, with a clear beginning (problem), middle (process/solutions), and end (impact/learnings).

• Focus on Process, Not Just Pixels: For each case study, dedicate significant time to explaining your thought process, research methods, ideation stages, and how you iterated based on feedback.

• Highlight Early-Stage Work: Explicitly showcase your concept models, ecosystem maps, and user journey frameworks. Explain how these artifacts shaped the product direction.

• Address AI Autonomy: If you have relevant experience, discuss how you designed for AI systems, user control, and verification. If not, discuss your theoretical approach.

• Quantify Impact: Use data or qualitative feedback to demonstrate the value and impact of your design solutions.

• Be Ready for Deep Dives: Expect interviewers to ask detailed questions about your design choices and rationale.

📝 Enhancement Note: Amazon interviews are behavioral and competency-based, heavily relying on the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Be prepared to provide specific, detailed examples that demonstrate your skills and align with their Leadership Principles.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior UX Designer position:

• Submit your resume and a link to your online portfolio through the Amazon Jobs portal.

• Portfolio Customization: Ensure your portfolio prominently features case studies demonstrating early-stage design thinking, complex workflow design, and experience with AI or sophisticated technical audiences. Tailor your presentation to highlight your ability to frame ambiguous problems and design for novel interaction paradigms.

• Resume Optimization: Clearly articulate your 7+ years of experience, emphasizing skills in UX design, interaction design, research synthesis, prototyping, and cross-platform design. Use keywords from the job description such as "agentic AI," "developer tools," "concept modeling," and "workflow design."

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your design process using the STAR method, focusing on behavioral questions related to Amazon's Leadership Principles, problem-solving, and collaboration. Prepare to present your portfolio in detail.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Amazon's culture, its commitment to innovation in AWS, and the specific goals of the Kiro project. Understand the challenges of designing for developers and AI autonomy.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.