---
title: '[ART Lab] Interaction Designer at Cox Exponential'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/art-lab-interaction-designer-cox-exponential-san-mateo-dpsbv1pp6yzr'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# [ART Lab] Interaction Designer at Cox Exponential

- **Company:** Cox Exponential
- **Location:** San Mateo, CA
- **Employment:** contract
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-17
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/cox-exponential/am9icG9zdDqB4jO97NSRLlycH0Cq2kFc

## Job description

## About Us

ART Lab (AI Robot Technology) is building novel and unexpected endpoints for AI in everyday spaces. We believe that in the AI revolution, we won’t only be accessing intelligence through glass screens on our desks and in our pockets. ART Lab has invented a new type of AI model called VLIs — vision-language-interaction models — that can be used to power human-robot interactions across a range of robots. The team has backgrounds at Amazon (robotics), Apple, Logitech, Google (AI and robotics) and Humans since 1982. The company is advised by leaders from Stanford, LEGO, Nike, and Google.

## The Role

We’re looking for an interaction designer who thinks with their hands. When your medium is a robot that people share physical space with, you can’t design it on a screen alone — you have to build it, hold it, and feel how the interaction lands in the real world.

You’ll work directly with the founding team to shape how people experience our robots: the moment-to-moment feel of an interaction, the motion, the timing, the personality. One day you’re prototyping a flow on screen; the next you’re taping together a physical rig and running it live to see if it actually works. You’ll use AI coding tools to build working prototypes yourself, so your ideas show up as real, testable things instead of static mockups. This starts as a short contract so we can both find out quickly whether it clicks — with the intent to convert to a full-time role.

## What You’ll Do

- Prototype in the real world: Build physical, spatial, and Wizard-of-Oz prototypes to test interactions with actual hardware — paper, cardboard, off-the-shelf parts, whatever gets the idea real fastest
- Prototype on screen: Design and iterate flows, states, and motion in Figma, code, or whatever’s fastest
- Build with AI, not just design: Use Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and similar tools as a native part of your workflow to ship working prototypes without waiting on someone else
- Design the feel of human-robot interaction: Sweat the motion, timing, and behavior that make a robot feel alive, legible, and delightful to be around
- Turn fuzzy problems into concrete bets: Take open-ended questions, make them testable, get them in front of real people — and kill the ones that don’t work
- Partner across the stack: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with hardware, robotics, and ML engineers to make the whole experience real

## Who You Are

Required:

- 1–5 years designing interactions, products, or experiences, with a portfolio of things you actually shipped or built — not just pixels
- Fluent with AI coding agents — you’ve genuinely built with Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, or similar, and can go from idea to working prototype on your own
- A real-world prototyper — you make physical, spatial, or improvised prototypes to test ideas, not just Figma files
- Strong instincts for interaction, motion, and feel — you notice the 100ms that makes something feel right or wrong
- Clever, curious, and genuinely fun to work with — you ask good questions, chase weird ideas, and make the team better by being in the room
- Based in or willing to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area (in-person collaboration is essential for hardware work)

Preferred:

- Comfort with code — front-end, creative coding (p5, TouchDesigner, openFrameworks), or hardware/microcontrollers (Arduino, Raspberry Pi)
- Experience designing motion, animation, or character/robot behavior
- Experience running prototype tests with real users and iterating fast
- Background in industrial design, HRI, physical computing, or hardware/consumer products
- A side project, a strange demo, or a thing you made just because you had to

This Role Might Not Be For You If:

- You only want to work in Figma and hand off to someone else to build
- You need well-defined specs and established infrastructure
- You’re looking for a remote-only position

To Apply Send us your portfolio and a note about what excites you about this role — bonus points for a prototype, demo, or physical thing you made.

Contract: Full-time contractor, ~3-month contract with intent to convert to permanent · Start ASAP

## Why ART Lab

- Founding team opportunity: Join early and shape how people experience our robots
- World-class team: Work alongside veterans from Google, Amazon, Apple, and Logitech
- Exceptional advisors: Guidance from leaders at Stanford, LEGO, Nike, and Google
- Uncommon problem space: Design robots that people actually want in their spaces — products that are functional, beautiful, and surprising

## About Cox Exponential

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Cox Exponential (CX2) is the early-stage AI venture vehicle for Cox Enterprises, partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs to build breakthrough AI/ML companies.
- **Entity Type**: Private (venture capital / accelerator; part of Cox Enterprises)
- **Headquarters**: Silicon Valley, California, United States (with remote presence and an international outlook)
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Founded by technologists with decades of experience leading startups and building AI/ML products; key executives include Managing Partner Radu B. Rusu, General Partners Pantelis Kalogiros, Yukiko Jenkins, and others.

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Venture Capital & Private Equity (AI-focused early-stage investing)
- **Target customers**: B2B – exceptional entrepreneurs and early-stage AI companies seeking capital, mentorship, and access to the Cox family of businesses.
- **Mission**: Develop breakthrough technology that helps people flourish and bring firsts to market.

## Products & Services
Cox Exponential does not sell a product; it operates as an investment vehicle. Its main “offering” is its accelerator program and venture partnership:
- **AI Accelerator & Venture Program**: Provides capital, technical mentorship, business planning, code/prototype development, and connection to the Cox Enterprises ecosystem.
- **Portfolio Support**: Invests in and supports portfolio companies such as Spacer Robotics (autonomous rebar-tying robot), TrustMind, TrustFoundry.ai, and others.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Funding**: Not publicly disclosed (backed by Cox Enterprises, a large private conglomerate).
- **Key Metric**: Total employees ~20 (as of mid-2026); headcount grew ~144% year-over-year since founding in 2025.
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Cox Enterprises (parent); key executives from Scale Venture Partners, Fyusion, AGI House, etc.
- **Growth Signals**: Rapid team expansion, active hiring for senior engineering roles (AI infra, robotics, efficient ML), multiple open remote positions.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Cox Enterprises Backing**: Access to the breadth of a Fortune 500 company’s resources, industry connections, and potential pilot customers.
- **Founder-Led by Technologists**: The team comprises experienced AI/ML startup builders, offering hands-on technical guidance to portfolio companies.
- **Global Outlook**: Based in Silicon Valley with an international perspective, attracting talent from the US and Portugal.
- **Early-Stage Focus**: Dedicated to pre-seed and seed AI startups, differentiating from larger, less specialized corporate venture arms.

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Scaling the accelerator, expanding portfolio companies, and building in-house AI infrastructure talent to support portfolio needs.
- **Direction for growth**: Deepening ties with Cox business units, investing in frontier AI (LLMs, multimodal models, agentic RL, robotics), and hiring top-tier engineers to work on internal AI platforms and portfolio support.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Early-stage, high-autonomy environment within a stable corporate parent. Employees work on cutting-edge AI challenges across multiple portfolio companies.
- **Remote/Hybrid**: Fully remote workspaces for many roles; some positions require in-office presence in San Francisco (e.g., robotics roles). The company has 8 locations but emphasizes remote flexibility.
- **Notable Perks**: Opportunity to work on diverse AI/ML projects (LLMs, robotics, efficient ML systems), exposure to multiple startups, and a flat hierarchy with direct access to experienced partners.
- **Engineering Culture**: Strong emphasis on technical excellence, with open roles for Founding Engineer (AI Infra), Research Scientist (Efficient ML), Robotics Software Engineer, and Systems Engineer.

## Sources
1. [LinkedIn – Exponential by Cox](https://linkedin.com/company/exponential-by-cox)
2. [Built In – Cox Exponential](https://builtin.com/company/cox-exponential)
3. [Built In – Cox Exponential Jobs](https://builtin.com/company/cox-exponential/jobs)
4. [The Org – Cox Exponential (CX2)](https://theorg.com/org/cox-exponential-cx2)
5. [RemoteFront – Remote Jobs at Cox Exponential](https://www.remotefront.com/companies/Cox%20Exponential)

## Other roles at Cox Exponential

- [Founding Engineer, AI Infra](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-engineer-ai-infra-cox-exponential-san-francisco-bay-area-fx5arytyxdwv) — San Francisco Bay Area, CA
- [Senior Robotics Software Engineer at Spacer Robotics](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-robotics-software-engineer-at-spacer-robotics-cox-exponential-san-dm38kg1awaj1) — San Francisco, CA
- [Phenix Space, Space Systems Engineer (Electronics & Embedded)](https://feeny.ai/job/phenix-space-space-systems-engineer-electronics-embedded-cox-exponential-san-pj8qc42zgbs5) — San Francisco, CA