About the role
Founding Design Engineer
Location: San Francisco, CA (On-site, 5 days/week)
Compensation: $150,000–$250,000 Base + Equity (0.4–0.8%)
About the Opportunity
An early-stage, venture-backed AI startup is seeking a Founding Design Engineer to become its first design-focused engineering hire. This is a unique opportunity to own the end-to-end user experience for a highly technical AI platform, defining the product's design language while building production-ready frontend applications.
Working directly with the founding team, you'll help shape the future of an AI-native enterprise platform by combining exceptional product design with hands-on frontend engineering.
What You'll Do
- Own product design and frontend implementation from concept to production. - Design and build production-ready interfaces using React and TypeScript. - Establish the company's design language, design system, and UX patterns. - Collaborate closely with founders to build intuitive experiences for complex technical workflows. - Design for enterprise B2B software, platform products, and AI-powered user experiences.
What We're Looking For
- 1 - 5 years of experience in design, recent experience shipping frontend code in React/TypeScript - Experience at a venture-backed early-stage startup or fast-paced high-growth company - Has a self-driven project with real users (portfolio, side project, or startup) - Experience at an early-stage startup or other fast-paced environment. - Experience designing technical products such as developer tools, enterprise SaaS, infrastructure, platform software, or AI products. - Self-starter who thrives in an ownership-driven environment with minimal direction. - Design/Arts/CS degree
Skills
Tech stack React, TypeScript, Figma, Tailwind CSS
PLUS
- Next.js - Figma - Experience with design systems and component libraries. - Familiarity with AI, agentic workflows, or Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) principles.
Visa Sponsorship
The company can support:
- H-1B transfers - O-1 visas - TN visas - J-1 visas
Please note that new H-1B sponsorship is not available.
Why Join?
- Be the first Design Engineer and help define the product from the ground up. - Own both design and implementation without traditional design handoffs. - Work directly with an experienced founding team in a collaborative, high-impact environment. - Receive competitive compensation and meaningful equity while helping build a category-defining AI product.
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