Senior UX Prototyping & Research Engineer

A Moving Experience.

Role Overview

As a Prototyping & Research Engineer at Cerence AI, you will play a critical role in shaping next‑generation in-car and multimodal interactions by rapidly exploring, testing, and validating new concepts. You will transform early ideas into functional prototypes—from lightweight UX explorations in Figma to fully interactive experiences built in Unity, Unreal Engine, and custom C#/C++/Python systems. This role is ideal for someone who combines technical engineering depth with a strong sense of user experience, creativity, and hands-on experimentation across emerging HCI and AI technologies.

Key Responsibilities

• Experience Prototyping & Interaction Exploration

• Build high‑fidelity prototypes in Figma, supporting UX and product concept development.
• Develop interactive prototypes in Unity and Unreal Engine, demonstrating complex behaviors, multimodal interactions, and real-time system responses.
• Experiment with new interaction paradigms by integrating sensors, speech, gesture, and multimodal AI capabilities.

• Technical Experimentation & Research

• Apply AI models in HCI contexts, exploring how LLMs, vision models, or multimodal models enhance user experience.
• Conduct feasibility investigations, benchmarking, rapid experiments, and proof‑of‑concepts to inform product direction.
• Evaluate prototype performance, user behavior, and interaction quality to shape product and UX recommendations.

• Visual & Multimedia Storytelling

• Create compelling demo videos, experience walkthroughs, and prototype recordings to communicate vision and research outcomes.
• Use Adobe Creative Suite to refine prototype visuals, video edits, interaction walkthroughs, or concept storytelling materials.

• Cross‑Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with UX designers, research teams, product managers, and engineers to turn concepts into actionable prototypes.
• Participate in concept reviews, design workshops, and technical discussions to align experimentation with product and engineering goals.
• Provide engineering insight into prototype constraints, feasibility, and potential paths to production.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree (or equivalent experience) in Human‑Computer Interaction, Computer Science, Interactive Media, Game Development, or related fields.
• Strong portfolio showcasing interaction prototypes, real‑time experiences, or experimental HCI work.
• Proficiency with:Figma for UX prototypingUnity and Unreal Engine for interactive experience developmentAdobe Creative Suite for visual and video production
• Programming proficiency in C#, C++, and Python.
• Experience integrating or experimenting with AI models (LLMs, multimodal, CV, or speech) in interactive systems is highly desirable.
• Experience with sensors, multimodal interaction patterns, or real-time UX behavior modeling is a plus.
• Strong problem‑solving abilities, creativity in experimentation, and comfort working in fast‑paced exploratory environments.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Cerence Inc. (Nasdaq: CRNC and www.cerence.com) is the global industry leader in creating unique, moving experiences for the automotive world. Spun out from Nuance in October 2019, Cerence is a new, independent company that has quickly gained traction as a leader in the automotive voice assistant space, working with all of the world’s leading automakers – from Ford and Fiat Chrysler to Daimler, Audi and BMW to Geely and SAIC – to transform how a car feels, responds and learns. Its track record is built on more than 20 years of industry experience and leadership and more than 500 million cars on the road today across more than 70 languages.

As Cerence looks to the future and continues an ambitious growth agenda, we need someone to join the team and help build the future of voice and AI in cars. This is an exciting opportunity to join Cerence’s passionate, dedicated, global team and be a part of meaningful innovation in a rapidly growing industry.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Cerence is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, protected military or veteran status, genetic information and other protected classifications. Cerence Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement.

All prospective and current Employees need to remain vigilant when it comes to executing security policies in the workplace. This includes:

- Following workplace security protocols and training programs to familiarize with the ways to maintain a safe workplace.
- Following security procedures to report any suspicious activity.
- Having respect for corporate security procedures to allow those procedures to be effective.
- Adhering to company's compliance and regulations.
- Encouraging to follow a zero tolerance for workplace violence.

- Basic knowledge of information security and data privacy requirements (e.g., how to protect data & how to be handling this data).

- Demonstrative knowledge of information security through internal training programs.