900+ Design & UX Jobs in San Jose, CA

Official wage data shows a split market. For the broad Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media occupation family in San Jose, the 2025 annual mean wage was $117,900, with a $99,010 median, $63,120 at the 25th percentile, and $154,540 at the 75th percentile. For the more UX-relevant web and digital interface designer occupation, the local mean was $200,670 in May 2025, while older BLS metro data put the mean at $183,570 and the median at $173,660 in May 2023. Separately, posted salary ranges in the recent local sample centered on about $146k to $200k, with a broader 25th-75th band of about $122k to $237k.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 725 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $143,500 at the 25th percentile, $182,250 at the median and $214,475 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.

Showing 30 of 250+ openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

San Jose is a competitive market for Design, Creative & UX right now. The metro unemployment rate was 4.3% in August 2026 and total nonfarm jobs were up 1.5917% year over year, but Information employment slipped -0.5081% and Professional and Business Services slipped -0.3209%, which points to selective hiring in the sectors that employ many designers. Statewide, design, creative & UX employment was down 0.8% year over year in September and postings were essentially flat, so demand exists but it is not broad-based. The recent local posting mix also skewed heavily senior, with about 55% senior roles and only about 5% entry-level roles.

Best positioned: The strongest profile right now is a mid-to-senior product or UX designer with visible Figma, prototyping, interaction design, design systems, and user research work in software or fintech environments.

Main caution: Do not mistake San Jose's salary headlines for easy access: remote roles were less than 5% of the local sample, and entry-level openings were only about 5%.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 928 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Apple, Inc.: 72 open roles
2. Google Inc: 61 open roles
3. NVIDIA Corporation: 21 open roles
4. Intuitive: 18 open roles
5. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.: 15 open roles
6. Cisco Systems, Inc: 14 open roles
7. KLA Corporation: 14 open roles
8. Design: 13 open roles
9. TikTok Inc.: 13 open roles
10. Astera Labs: 12 open roles

Where the openings are

• San Jose: 235
• Mountain View: 126
• Santa Clara: 126
• Sunnyvale: 116
• Cupertino: 74
• Palo Alto: 58
• Milpitas: 52
• Menlo Park: 27

Work arrangement

on-site 740 (83%), hybrid 135 (15%), remote 18 (2%)

Where the demand is

Real opportunity is concentrated in digital product environments, not evenly spread across all creative work. In the recent local sample, software development accounted for about 30% of Design, Creative & UX postings, technology about 20%, financial services about 10%, technology, information and internet about 10%, and internet & web services about 10%. The most active named employers included Apple, Inc. and Robin Hood at around 10 postings each, followed by Google Inc, The Robot Age, Applied Intuition, Nubank, and Amazon at around 5 each. Hiring in the sample was fragmented rather than dominated by one company, which helps if you have niche fit but makes targeting and referrals more important. The work itself also clusters around product-design execution and systems work. The most requested skills were prototyping about 60%, Figma about 50%, product design and interaction design about 45% each, design systems about 35%, user research and visual design about 30%, and UX design about 20%. By contrast, the official local employment base and wage evidence is much stronger for web and digital interface designers than for graphic designers: BLS estimated 4,400 web and digital interface designers in the metro in May 2025, with employment concentration 5.32 times the national average, while graphic designers numbered 1,330 in the older May 2023 local data. That is why product and interface portfolios travel better in this market than broad creative portfolios.

• Product/UI/UX in software and fintech (high): This is the clearest opportunity lane because software development, technology, and financial services make up most of the active local demand.
• Design systems and interaction design (high): This lane maps closely to the local skill mix, where interaction design sits at about 45% and design systems at about 35% of postings.
• Generalist graphic or brand design (limited): This looks thinner locally. The strongest official evidence is for web and digital interface designers, while graphic designers had a smaller measured local employment base and much lower mean pay in the metro data.

Where to focus: Focus first on product-design roles inside software, platform, and fintech employers where Figma, prototyping, interaction design, design systems, and user research all show up in the same portfolio.

Roles worth searching next

• Design technologist / design systems engineer: Local demand emphasizes design systems, interaction design, prototyping, and Figma, and 22% of surveyed design leaders say technical or coding skills matter more in hiring.
• Product manager (UX-heavy): San Jose demand is concentrated in software, tech, and fintech product teams, so designers with strong discovery, research, and prioritization habits can pivot into product roles.
• UX writer / content designer: The same product teams that hire product designers also need people who shape flows, labels, and interface logic, making this a plausible bridge for candidates with information architecture strength.
• Research operations / customer insights manager: User research appears in about 30% of local postings, so candidates from research, analytics, or operations backgrounds can sometimes enter through adjacent evidence-and-insights roles.

What postings ask for

• Prototyping (table_stakes | immediate): It appeared in about 60% of recent local postings, making it the clearest baseline skill in this market. Who: Everyone applying to San Jose product, UX, and UI roles.
• Figma (table_stakes | immediate): Figma showed up in about 50% of local postings, so not having strong file hygiene, component work, and prototype fluency is an immediate filter risk. Who: All candidates, especially switchers who need to prove current tool fluency fast.
• Product design and interaction design (differentiator | immediate): Product design and interaction design each appeared in about 45% of the local sample, which tells you San Jose rewards end-to-end product thinking more than generic visual craft. Who: Mid-career designers and junior applicants trying to move out of pure graphic work.
• Design systems (premium | near-term): Design systems appeared in about 35% of local postings, and the market skewed senior, so system-level work is a strong way to signal leverage and maturity. Who: Mid-career designers, front-end-adjacent candidates, and anyone targeting platform teams.
• User research (differentiator | near-term): User research appeared in about 30% of local postings, which is enough to matter but still selective enough to help you stand out when it is tied to shipped decisions. Who: Career switchers from research, analytics, consulting, or customer experience backgrounds.
• AI fluency and designing with AI (premium | immediate): Adobe reported the share of U.S. creative postings mentioning AI skills rose from 10% in September 2025 to 15% in April 2026, Figma found 54% of surveyed hiring managers rank designing with AI among the top five in-demand design skills, and half of surveyed design leaders said AI fluency now gets more weight in hiring. Who: Everyone, but especially applicants targeting larger product teams and enterprise employers.

Questions about this market

What do Design, Creative & UX roles pay in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA?

Official wage data shows a split market. For the broad Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media occupation family in San Jose, the 2025 annual mean wage was $117,900, with a $99,010 median, $63,120 at the 25th percentile, and $154,540 at the 75th percentile. For the more UX-relevant web and digital interface designer occupation, the local mean was $200,670 in May 2025, while older BLS metro data put the mean at $183,570 and the median at $173,660 in May 2023. Separately, posted salary ranges in the recent local sample centered on about $146k to $200k, with a broader 25th-75th band of about $122k to $237k. That usually means San Jose pays extremely well for digital product, UI, and high-leverage platform work, not for every design specialty. Local graphic designers averaged $103,260 in May 2023, far below the web and digital interface designer benchmarks.

Where is demand for Design, Creative & UX roles in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA concentrated?

Real opportunity is concentrated in digital product environments, not evenly spread across all creative work. In the recent local sample, software development accounted for about 30% of Design, Creative & UX postings, technology about 20%, financial services about 10%, technology, information and internet about 10%, and internet & web services about 10%. The most active named employers included Apple, Inc. and Robin Hood at around 10 postings each, followed by Google Inc, The Robot Age, Applied Intuition, Nubank, and Amazon at around 5 each. Hiring in the sample was fragmented rather than dominated by one company, which helps if you have niche fit but makes targeting and referrals more important. The work itself also clusters around product-design execution and systems work. The most requested skills were prototyping about 60%, Figma about 50%, product design and interaction design about 45% each, design systems about 35%, user research and visual design about 30%, and UX design about 20%. By contrast, the official local employment base and wage evidence is much stronger for web and digital interface designers than for graphic designers: BLS estimated 4,400 web and digital interface designers in the metro in May 2025, with employment concentration 5.32 times the national average, while graphic designers numbered 1,330 in the older May 2023 local data. That is why product and interface portfolios travel better in this market than broad creative portfolios.

Which employers are hiring the most Design, Creative & UX talent in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA?

Recent postings show the most activity from Apple, Inc. (10 postings), Robin Hood (10 postings), Google Inc (5 postings), The Robot Age (5 postings), Applied Intuition (5 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Design, Creative & UX roles in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 5% are remote and 35% hybrid, with 65% 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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