250+ Design & UX Jobs in San Diego, CA

The strongest local benchmark is the broad arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupation family: San Diego's 2025 median wage was $67,100, the mean was $84,500, the 75th percentile was $98,790, and the 90th percentile was $134,280. Separate proxy signals point higher for parts of the digital-design market: California design, creative & UX openings showed a mean offered salary of about $93,994 in September 2026, and a local posting sample placed advertised pay around approximately $120,000–$150,000 for part of the market.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 210 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $94,206 at the 25th percentile, $139,500 at the median and $177,500 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of October 15, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

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What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

San Diego is a competitive market for design and UX right now. Metro unemployment was 4.9% in August 2026, total nonfarm employment was up 0.7005% year over year, and local professional and business services employment was essentially flat, so the region is still adding jobs without broad-based expansion in the functions that often house design teams. Local information employment was down 6.5934% year over year, while California design, creative & UX employment was down 0.8% and statewide postings were essentially flat, which points to selective hiring rather than a broad rebound.

Best positioned: The best odds belong to designers who can show shipped interface work in Figma, solid Adobe craft, design-system thinking, and accessibility or stakeholder evidence rather than a purely aesthetic portfolio.

Main caution: The biggest misconception is treating San Diego like a remote-first UX market; recent local postings were about 60% on-site, about 20% hybrid, and about 20% remote, while a global UX hiring index showed a much more distributed mix of 39% hybrid, 37% remote, and 24% on-site among roles that stated a work mode.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 253 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. QUALCOMM, Inc.: 36 open roles
2. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.: 21 open roles
3. Apple, Inc.: 12 open roles
4. Luxury Bath: 10 open roles
5. Amazon: 6 open roles
6. Jacobs Engineering Group: 5 open roles
7. Dexcom, Inc.: 4 open roles
8. Gensler: 4 open roles
9. Northrop Grumman: 4 open roles
10. AnySilicon: 3 open roles

Where the openings are

• San Diego: 204
• Poway: 24
• Tijuana: 5
• El Cajon: 2
• Vista: 2
• National City: 1
• Spring Valley: 1
• Santee: 1

Work arrangement

on-site 194 (77%), hybrid 44 (18%), remote 13 (5%)

Where the demand is

Real opportunity is concentrated in hybrid designer profiles rather than narrow specialties. In recent local postings, Figma appeared in about 60%, Adobe Creative Suite in about 35%, Adobe Illustrator in about 30%, Adobe Photoshop in about 25%, design systems in about 20%, and graphic design in about 20%. That mix points to employers wanting one person who can handle interface work, brand production, and execution details. It also explains why pure pixel-only portfolios are weaker in a market where the metro's information sector was down 6.5934% year over year and professional and business services was essentially flat. Another meaningful pocket is institutional digital experience work. UC San Diego Library's Digital Experience team won a 2026 silver design award, runs monthly Siteimprove-based accessibility and quality reviews with content leads, and reported keeping its core website above benchmark in 35 of 37 monthly measurements over three years. That is a concrete local signal that some San Diego employers value accessibility, governance, and service quality—not just campaign visuals. Smaller production-oriented firms are also in the mix, with Fastsigns International the most consistently active named employer in the recent local sample at around 5 postings.

• Institutional digital experience and accessibility (high): Higher-ed and service organizations look like a real local lane for designers who can improve public-facing websites, accessibility, and content quality workflows.
• Production, signage, and brand execution (moderate): Adobe-heavy visual production work remains relevant locally, and Fastsigns International was the most consistently active named employer in the recent sample at around 5 postings.
• Product, UI, and systems-heavy design (moderate): This path still offers the strongest upside because Figma and design systems show up often in postings, but it is more selective because the local information sector is contracting.

Where to focus: Focus first on employers where design touches accessibility, digital operations, or business delivery, and treat pure remote product-design searches as a secondary lane.

Roles worth searching next

• Front-end web developer: Local demand leans toward interface delivery and design systems, and related digital-interface benchmarks are higher than broad creative benchmarks.
• Accessibility specialist / digital QA analyst: Award-winning local digital experience work is explicitly tied to accessibility and quality-review workflows, which gives designers a credible nearby path.
• Creative operations / project manager: Stakeholder management and leadership are increasingly important in UX and design work, so designers with delivery discipline can move toward process ownership.
• Product manager / product operations analyst: Current UX thinking is shifting toward user needs, intent, and end-to-end journeys, which overlaps meaningfully with product decision work.

What postings ask for

• Figma (table_stakes | immediate): It was the most commonly requested hard skill in recent local postings, appearing in about 60% of them, so leaving it out of your portfolio is a visible gap. Who: All candidates, especially entry-level and mid-career applicants.
• Adobe Creative Suite (table_stakes | immediate): Adobe Creative Suite appeared in about 35% of local postings, with Illustrator in about 30% and Photoshop in about 25%, which shows that San Diego still rewards strong visual-production execution alongside UX language. Who: Visual designers, brand designers, and UX candidates whose portfolios look too wireframe-heavy.
• Design systems (differentiator | near-term): Design systems appeared in about 20% of local postings and also show up prominently in broader UX hiring data, making them a strong filter for higher-trust roles. Who: Mid-career designers and career switchers trying to look more enterprise-ready.
• Accessibility and QA workflow (premium | immediate): UC San Diego Library's award-winning digital experience team highlighted monthly Siteimprove-based reviews and sustained above-benchmark accessibility performance, which is strong local evidence that accessibility discipline creates value here. Who: Candidates targeting higher ed, health, public service, or enterprise web experience teams.
• User research and stakeholder management (premium | near-term): National UX guidance emphasizes user research, stakeholder management, leadership, and systems thinking as the capabilities that help practitioners stand out in a competitive 2026 market. Who: Mid-career designers and senior ICs who want better odds than craft-only applicants.
• AI tools and AI-experience design (differentiator | near-term): AI tools and AI-experience design are part of the current capability set UX practitioners are advised to build, especially when tied to research and workflow improvement rather than hype alone. Who: Designers moving toward product, systems, or research-informed interface work.

Questions about this market

What do Design, Creative & UX roles pay in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA?

The strongest local benchmark is the broad arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupation family: San Diego's 2025 median wage was $67,100, the mean was $84,500, the 75th percentile was $98,790, and the 90th percentile was $134,280. Separate proxy signals point higher for parts of the digital-design market: California design, creative & UX openings showed a mean offered salary of about $93,994 in September 2026, and a local posting sample placed advertised pay around approximately $120,000–$150,000 for part of the market. This is a split-pay market. General creative and graphic work can sit much closer to the broader local median, while interface-heavy or product-adjacent roles can price materially higher; national BLS benchmarks were $62,960 for graphic designers and $104,000 for web and digital interface designers.

Where is demand for Design, Creative & UX roles in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA concentrated?

Real opportunity is concentrated in hybrid designer profiles rather than narrow specialties. In recent local postings, Figma appeared in about 60%, Adobe Creative Suite in about 35%, Adobe Illustrator in about 30%, Adobe Photoshop in about 25%, design systems in about 20%, and graphic design in about 20%. That mix points to employers wanting one person who can handle interface work, brand production, and execution details. It also explains why pure pixel-only portfolios are weaker in a market where the metro's information sector was down 6.5934% year over year and professional and business services was essentially flat. Another meaningful pocket is institutional digital experience work. UC San Diego Library's Digital Experience team won a 2026 silver design award, runs monthly Siteimprove-based accessibility and quality reviews with content leads, and reported keeping its core website above benchmark in 35 of 37 monthly measurements over three years. That is a concrete local signal that some San Diego employers value accessibility, governance, and service quality—not just campaign visuals. Smaller production-oriented firms are also in the mix, with Fastsigns International the most consistently active named employer in the recent local sample at around 5 postings.

Which employers are hiring the most Design, Creative & UX talent in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA?

Recent postings show the most activity from Fastsigns International (5 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Design, Creative & UX roles in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 20% are remote and 20% hybrid, with 60% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

Browse California openings by job title

• Software Engineer: 1,182 open roles statewide
• General Manager: 419 open roles statewide
• Product Manager: 411 open roles statewide
• Project Manager: 388 open roles statewide
• Program Manager: 327 open roles statewide
• Technical Program Manager: 316 open roles statewide
• Senior Software Engineer: 277 open roles statewide
• Staff Software Engineer: 234 open roles statewide
• Engineering Manager: 173 open roles statewide
• Senior Manager: 138 open roles statewide
• Senior Product Manager: 117 open roles statewide
• Associate Director: 108 open roles statewide

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