(Creative / Senior / Lead) Exterior Designer

Job Description

Work Arrangement

This role is categorized as on-site. Successful candidates are expected to work full time from the GM China Advanced Technical Center in Shanghai, China.

About GM China Design Studio

GM China Design Studio is both a production design studio and an advanced design studio. We shape meaningful vehicle experiences for GM brands serving customers in China and global markets, connecting near-term production programs with forward-looking exploration.

We are committed to creating an exceptional design environment where creativity, beauty, craftsmanship, and storytelling can thrive. Our designers work across disciplines and cultures to translate customer understanding, brand identity, emerging technologies, and new forms of mobility into compelling exterior design proposals.

About This Evergreen Requisition

This evergreen requisition is established for talent pipelining purposes. GM China Design Studio is building a long-term pipeline of exceptional Exterior Designers across multiple levels, including Creative Designer, Senior Exterior Designer, and Lead Exterior Designer, in support of current and anticipated business needs.

We welcome applications from outstanding designers around the world who are interested in contributing to exciting production programs and advanced design work in our China studio. Depending on business needs and the candidate’s experience, future opportunities may involve different levels of responsibility, program scope, and creative leadership.

When submitting your application, please include:

• An updated resume or CV.

• An updated portfolio that clearly demonstrates your design thinking, creative process, visual communication, and relevant exterior design capabilities.

• Please ensure that your portfolio does not contain undisclosed, confidential, proprietary, or otherwise sensitive information, projects, or materials belonging to current or previous employers or clients.

After your application is submitted, our recruiting and design teams will review your materials. If there is alignment with a current or future opportunity, a recruiter will contact you to discuss potential next steps. Because this is an evergreen requisition, the timing of contact may vary according to business needs and the fit between your experience and upcoming opportunities.

If you do not meet every element listed below but are interested in exploring an opportunity with GM China Design Studio, we still encourage you to apply. We value distinctive creative perspectives, strong design potential, and the ability to contribute to a collaborative studio environment.

The Role -

Exterior Designers in GM China Design Studio help define the visual identity, proportion, stance, and emotional character of future vehicles and mobility products for China and global markets. Depending on level and experience, you may contribute to or lead exterior themes and component design from early advanced exploration through production execution, creating proposals that are distinctive, customer-relevant, brand-expressive, and technically achievable.

You will collaborate with designers and partners across exterior design, sculpting, engineering, fabrication, modeling, product planning, customer research, and global design studios. The scope of your contribution may range from developing sketches and digital or physical design proposals to directing programs, presenting to senior leadership, and mentoring other designers.

What You May Do

Your responsibilities may include the following, depending on your level, experience, and assigned program:

Creative Designer-level contribution

• Develop exterior design concepts, component ideas, sketches, renderings, and visual narratives under the guidance of more experienced designers.

• Explore alternative design themes, proportions, surfaces, details, and graphic treatments that respond to brand direction, customer needs, technology opportunities, and program objectives.

• Communicate exterior design intent through traditional sketching, digital 2D visualization, digital 3D tools, scale models, physical mock-ups, and other appropriate design media.

• Support the development of exterior proposals from early ideation toward digital models, scale models, clay, full-size representations, or other design deliverables.

• Participate in design reviews and cross-functional discussions; incorporate feedback into refined design solutions while continuing to develop a clear and distinctive point of view.

• Build understanding of design feasibility, proportions, surface development, aerodynamics, lighting, manufacturing processes, craftsmanship, and quality expectations.

Senior Designer-level contribution

• Independently develop and advance exterior themes and component proposals for assigned advanced or production programs, from initial sketches through refined digital, scale, or full-size design representations.

• Translate brand strategy, customer understanding, competitive references, future mobility trends, and technology opportunities into distinctive exterior concepts and cohesive vehicle design proposals.

• Create and communicate high-quality sketches, renderings, digital 3D models, physical mock-ups, and presentations that clearly explain design intent, proportion, stance, surface language, details, and overall vehicle character.

• Collaborate closely with the design team, sculpting organization, engineering, fabrication, modeling, and other cross-functional partners to develop designs that balance creative ambition with technical and manufacturing realities.

• Provide design insight and recommendations, respond constructively to general direction, and make clear design decisions within a deadline-driven environment.

• Present design ideas and proposals in studio reviews and leadership forums, explaining the thinking behind the work and incorporating feedback into stronger solutions.

• Contribute to advanced and exploratory projects by taking a broad view of customer needs, future transportation, emerging technologies, and new forms of mobility.

• Share knowledge and provide informal guidance to less experienced designers when appropriate, contributing to a positive and collaborative studio culture.

Lead Designer-level contribution

• Define and drive the creative direction of assigned exterior programs across advanced and production design phases, from early exploration through final model development and release.

• Create new and distinctive exterior designs for complete vehicles, mobility products, and key exterior components, demonstrating a strong point of view across proportion, stance, surface, graphics, and detail.

• Independently lead the development of design proposals using traditional sketching, digital 2D and 3D technology, digital modeling, physical scale models, and full-size clay or other physical representations.

• Establish design strategies that express GM brand DNA while responding to China-specific customer needs, market dynamics, future transportation, and innovation opportunities.

• Lead design alignment with the design team, sculpting, engineering, fabrication, modeling, product planning, customer research, and global design studios to deliver solutions that are compelling, feasible, and program-ready.

• Represent GM China Design in key studio reviews and leadership forums, presenting creative ideas and design recommendations clearly to management and senior leadership.

• Provide creative direction, review work, offer constructive feedback, and mentor designers across different experience levels.

• Drive design deliverables and decision-making according to program timing and applicable design processes, maintaining alignment on quality, craftsmanship, feasibility, and leadership expectations.

• Demonstrate design courage by challenging assumptions, exploring provocative opportunities, and raising the creative ambition