Application Guide
How to Apply for UI/UX Design Intern, Internal Platforms
at Zoox
🏢 About Zoox
Zoox is pioneering electric autonomous vehicles designed from the ground up for dense urban environments, aiming to revolutionize transportation by reducing congestion and carbon emissions. As an intern, you'll contribute to a mission-driven team shaping the future of mobility.
About This Role
This role focuses on improving Zoox's internal platforms, which support the engineering and operations teams building autonomous vehicles. You'll audit existing tools, design intuitive interfaces, and collaborate with engineers and users to streamline complex workflows, directly impacting the efficiency of the company's core mission.
💡 A Day in the Life
Start the day with a stand-up with engineers and product managers to discuss priorities. Spend the morning auditing an existing internal tool, documenting friction points, and sketching solutions. After lunch, conduct a usability test with a few end-users, then iterate on wireframes in Figma. End the day by updating the component library with new patterns.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Zoox Is Looking For
- A design student or recent grad with a strong portfolio showcasing clean, modern UI and experience with design systems (e.g., Material, Polaris).
- Proficient in Figma, with a solid grasp of typography, spacing, color, accessibility, and responsive design principles.
- Comfortable conducting user research, interviews, and usability tests to validate design decisions.
- Self-directed and outcome-oriented, able to translate complex internal workflows into simple, intuitive patterns.
📝 Tips for Applying to Zoox
Tailor your portfolio to include examples of internal tools or enterprise interfaces, not just consumer apps.
Highlight any experience with design systems or component libraries—mention specific ones (e.g., Material, Polaris).
In your cover letter, reference Zoox's mission and explain how improving internal tools supports autonomous vehicle development.
Showcase your ability to conduct user research: include a case study where you interviewed users and iterated based on feedback.
Use Figma's prototyping features to demonstrate interaction design for complex workflows in your portfolio.
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
["Emphasize your passion for autonomous vehicles and Zoox's unique approach (purpose-built vehicle, not retrofitted).", "Highlight your experience with design systems and how you've contributed to or used them to ensure consistency.", 'Mention your ability to simplify complex processes—give a specific example from past projects.', 'Express enthusiasm for collaborating with engineers and end-users to validate designs through testing.']
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Read about Zoox's autonomous vehicle technology and how it differs from other AV companies (purpose-built, no steering wheel).
- → Explore Zoox's company culture and values, especially their focus on safety and innovation.
- → Look into their internal platform needs—check job descriptions for related engineering roles to understand the tech stack.
- → Familiarize yourself with Zoox's design language if available (e.g., through blog posts or press releases).
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Submitting a generic portfolio with no examples of enterprise or internal tool design.
- Ignoring the importance of design systems—don't just say you know them; show evidence.
- Failing to mention user research or testing in your application—this role heavily emphasizes validation.
📅 Application Timeline
This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.
Typical hiring timeline:
Application Review
1-2 weeks
Initial Screening
Phone call or written assessment
Interviews
1-2 rounds, usually virtual
Offer
Congratulations!