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.
