Designer (Full-time, hourly)

Embodied, Inc. is a technology company founded by veteran roboticist Paolo Pirjanian (iRobot, Evolution Robotics) with the conviction that the next big wave of technology will be driven by human-machine interfaces that are socially aware and intelligent.

Embodied’s veteran team of technologists, neuroscientists, child development specialists, and creative storytellers have been entirely reinventing human-machine interaction to enable realistic and intuitive interactions similar to humans. Through extensive research, they developed a breakthrough technology platform, SocialX™, that incorporates advanced AI and machine-learning to support fluid conversation, body language, eye contact, and emotions.

The first iteration of this technology is Moxie™, an animated companion for children developed to help promote social, emotional, and cognitive learning. Recognized by TIME magazine as one of the Best Inventions of 2020, Moxie™ has been called “the robot pal you dreamed of as a kid” (Wired Magazine), “the robot that could be your child’s or parent’s new best friend” (Fast Company), and “a technically impressive childhood robot” (TechCrunch). You can learn all about Moxie™ and see how Embodied (one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2021) works at: embodied.com

Position Summary

At Embodied, Designers collaborate across disciplines to design, prototype, and build interactions for the company's first robot designed to help kids (ages 5-10) with social emotional learning (SEL). Ideal candidates are self-motivated with strong communication skills and a good sense of judgment regarding conversation, speech, and character performance.

Designers will work in a variety of content areas, contributing to core SEL content, narrative design, generative speech, conversation design, games, engagement systems, and more.

General Responsibilities include:

• Creating innovative content that captures the imagination of children of all ages and improves their social development by working collaboratively with:

• Social development experts to integrate therapeutically enhanced content

• Roboticists to collaborate on content using sensory input

• Engineers to implement unique, entertaining activities

• Solving complex challenges in a new field for creative exploration

• Having fun and learning while working at a startup with a great team on an incredible mission

Specific Responsibilities include:

• Design engaging learning modules for Moxie that captivate users and enable them to master key Social Emotional Learning points

• Design modules that contribute to the long term vision of the GRL Creative Universe

• Establish effective design templates that can be iterated upon through multiple modules

• Creatively innovate design features that distinguish Embodied's unique experiences

• Create modules that take full advantage of the capabilities of an Embodied robot (Moxie), or other connected mediums of learning (physical mailings or the connected kids’ portal)

• Design scoring and feedback systems to enhance learning experiences and provide progress feedback to users and administrators

• Accurately scope upcoming projects, document plans, track progress, report and work with production tools to provide appropriate guidance on design activities and progress

• Work with team members and collaborators to identify learning pain points and identify possible solutions

• Work collaboratively in a team of other designers, producers, writers and artists to realize high impact high quality design goals

• Work with subject matter experts to translate their knowledge and expertise into engaging Social Emotional Learning experiences

• Revise designs as necessary based on feedback from users, team members, and stakeholders

• Pitch ideas internally to team members and stakeholders and champion best practices and user experiences

• Actively test and iterate on all content to achieve highest standards of overall team execution and user experience
   

Minimum Qualifications

• Game Design experience on 2 or more published projects

• 2+ years of progressively responsible experience in the area of Game Design (4 years preferred)

• The desire and ability to create innovative new play patterns using voice, image recognition and/or gesture controls

• Strong writing skills for creating original content for children (ages 5-10)

• Excellent organization and communication skills

• Work well within a cross-discipline team: engineering, art, audio, therapy, marketing, etc.

• Familiarity with overseeing content from creation to execution

• Ability to manage priorities

• Understanding of game structure and story and how they can integrate effectively

• Ability to adapt design to match a project's tone, business requirements, and learning goals

• Ability to design, iterate and revise work under tight deadlines

• Comfortable working with scripting tools and other technical production tools

Preferred Qualifications

• Technical and/or background in complex systems design

• Non-linear scripting experience

• Conversational design experience

• Understanding of educational pedagogy and learning theory for kids (5-10)

• Experience working in an agile environment

• Experience of designing games for kids (5-10)

• Experience in the Unity Engine

At Embodied, we support diversity and we are an equal opportunity workplace. We offer a competitive benefits package that includes compensation, health benefits, employee stock options, 401(k) match, flexible PTO, and flexible schedules. We are a dynamic and diverse team that likes to push the status quo. 

Contact us: join@embodied.me