I applied online. I interviewed at Orbital in May 2026
Interview
30-minute interview consisting of three structured questions, followed by a brief overview of the company, team and role, with a short Q&A window at the end for my own questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
One particular question asked whether I demonstrated a sufficiently transformative shift in worldview due to AI, requiring me to articulate how my beliefs about software had fundamentally changed.
Framing felt more aligned with philosophical belief than practical leadership. For this role, I would have expected greater emphasis on delivery and governance.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Orbital (London, England) in Apr 2026
Interview
Standard HR screening call first, which was professional and mostly focused on background, experience, and general fit.
After that, I was asked to complete a take-home task. The task was fairly large in scope and closely tied to the company’s live product, requiring substantial product thinking around workflow, AI interaction, and product direction. Because of that, it felt closer to free product consultation than a typical design exercise.
The final stage was an on-site panel interview. While the conversations themselves were thoughtful, some panel members joined remotely despite the requirement to come into the office, which made the in-person setup feel harder to justify.
What made the process feel misaligned was that the team gave positive feedback on my solution, product thinking, and design work, but the final decision still came down to “fit” and an abstract alignment on AI trajectory.
Overall, the process was well organised from an HR perspective, but the evaluation criteria felt somewhat misaligned with the scale of the take-home.
First interview is understanding your skills and ability to do the role. They also give an overview of the company and what they’re hoping to achieve. I was given the design task to do which focused on producing a hi-fidelity design.