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.