Founding Design Engineer

About the Role

We're hiring a Founding Design Engineer to help build the next generation of AI-powered productivity tools for knowledge workers.

This is a rare hybrid role for someone who sits at the intersection of product design and frontend engineering — a builder who can both craft intuitive user experiences and ship production-ready code.

You'll own the product experience end-to-end from day one, working directly with the founding team to shape how humans collaborate with AI agents inside a category-defining platform already gaining traction with paying users.

This role is ideal for highly product-minded builders who thrive in fast-moving startup environments and enjoy turning ideas into polished, real-world experiences quickly.

About the Company

The company is building the next generation of productivity software for knowledge workers — bringing AI-native workflows and human-agent collaboration into everyday work.

The vision is similar to what modern AI coding tools have done for engineers, but applied across broader categories of knowledge work.

The product already has active paying users and early traction, with a deeply technical founding team focused on building high-quality AI-native experiences from the ground up.

What You'll Do

• Own product design and frontend development end-to-end
• Design product experiences and workflows in Figma
• Build and ship production-level React applications
• Shape the UX of human and AI-agent collaboration
• Partner directly with founders on product direction and roadmap decisions
• Influence company culture, design standards, and engineering practices from an early stage
• Rapidly prototype, iterate, and improve user experiences based on customer feedback
• Help define how AI-native productivity products should feel and operate

Required Qualifications

Experience

• 2–6 years of relevant product design and/or frontend engineering experience
• Strong ability to both design and build product experiences
• Proven experience shipping production-level React applications
• Strong experience with Figma and modern product design workflows
• Experience building or contributing to 0-to-1 products
• Strong product intuition and UX thinking

Mindset & Working Style

• Product-minded with strong execution instincts
• Bias toward shipping and iteration over perfectionism
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving startup environments
• Hands-on builder mentality with strong ownership
• Excited by AI-native workflows and emerging human-agent interaction models

Preferred Background

• Experience at high-quality product, productivity, or AI startups
• Background in design, computer science, HCI, or related disciplines
• Experience with AI/LLM-based products or workflows

Compensation & Equity

Compensation

• Base Salary: $200,000 – $250,000 USD

Equity

• Equity Range: 1% – 2%

Work Environment

• Location: San Francisco, California
• 4 days/week onsite
• High-ownership founding team environment

Visa Sponsorship

• Sponsorship not available

Why This Role Stands Out

Foundational Ownership

You'll be the company's first dedicated design-focused engineering hire with significant influence over product direction, UX standards, and overall customer experience.

AI-Native Product Design

This role sits at the frontier of designing human-agent collaboration experiences — one of the most important emerging UX challenges in AI.

High Product Influence

You'll work directly with founders and help define the product's interaction model, workflows, and visual language from an early stage.

Real Users, Real Traction

This is not a concept-stage company. The platform already has paying users, active engagement, and meaningful momentum.

Strong Equity Upside

The compensation structure reflects the level of ownership and long-term impact expected from this role.