a16z Principal Product Designer (R5250)
Job Description:
The Special Projects team at Shield AI is an elite force within the office of the CTO. It consists of a group of very senior (L5-L8) and highly experienced software engineering experts from diverse fields (aerospace, robotics, cloud infrastructure, game development, interactive media design, ...). The charter of this group is to steer technology development towards strategic alignment with the CTO's vision, through tactical insertion into teams and technologies across the organization. Individuals within this team make direct and at times forward-sprinting contributions to all three pillars of Hivemind, Shield AI's software ecosystem for developing and deploying resilient intelligent teaming for aircrafts. Hivemind consists of four products: EdgeOS (C++ based high-performance middleware for autonomy development), Pilot (autonomy for the edge built atop EdgeOS; a models-based, modular and open architecture C++ codebase), Forge (Shield AI's AI Factory for the design, development, and testing of Hivemind Edge systems; a service-oriented architecture leveraged through an SDK, CLI, and web portal; a Go, Python, Typescript codebase), Commander (Software and hardware to support rich human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop interactions with the Hivemind; a C++-based back-end for interaction with Pilot; and a web-application UI for mission planning, command and control by operators implemented in a Typescript/React codebase).
The Special Projects team is chartered to operate effectively within ambiguity. While this team does not own any software products, it tactically and strategically impacts the development of all foundational Hivemind products and leverages those technologies to rapidly deliver low-TRL solutions. This work happens shoulder-to-shoulder with the product teams in some cases, and in a forward-sprinting manner within the Special Projects team in other cases. The result is direct contribution to products in the former case, and development of reference implementations in the latter. The Special Projects team also functions as a pipeline for product and solution engineering teams across the organization. Individuals who enter the Special Projects team rapidly gain depth and breadth in their understanding of the Hivemind software ecosystem. This positions them well for leading technology development effort across the product and solution organization.
What you'll do:
- Design and build the user experience for agentic AI products across the office of the CTO: an enterprise knowledge assistant (Brain), an agent-driven engineering platform (Springboard), and enterprise AI/data applications.
- Prototype in code. Ship working React/TypeScript implementations, not mockups — then land them in production with the product teams.
- Design the core interaction patterns of agentic software: streaming responses, citations and provenance, multi-modal input, artifact sharing, and human-in-the-loop review and approval surfaces.
- Design interfaces for foundation-model based autonomy architectures and model lifecycle tooling: evaluation dashboards, trace inspection, observability, and verification surfaces.
- Conduct user research across engineers, operators, and executives; define personae and translate findings into design decisions.
- Investigate competing agentic and enterprise AI products; synthesize findings for engineering and product leadership.
- Establish reusable design patterns and a component vocabulary for AI applications across the organization.
- Drive adoption: instrument what you ship, watch real usage, and iterate daily.
Required qualifications:
- 12+ years designing and building production software interfaces, with end-to-end ownership from research through shipped product.
- Expert-level React/TypeScript; you write production-quality front-end code, not just prototypes.
- Portfolio of shipped tools or applications demonstrating strong interaction design and visual craft.
- Hands-on experience designing LLM-powered experiences: streaming, progressive rendering, loading states, context and conversation management.
- Deep knowledge of client and UI state management, the DOM, browser APIs, WebSockets, and Server-Sent Events.
- Experience running user research and usability testing, and acting on the results.
- Strong software hygiene: Git, code review, testing, CI/CD.
- Fluid intelligence that allows one to operate effectively in ambiguous conditions while finding opportunities to drive technical efforts and force multiply.
- Experience with Linux, Docker, and a major cloud platform (Azure, GCP, AWS).
- This role requires travel to a Shield AI location 1-3 times per quarter
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience designing developer tools, IDEs, or engineering workflow products.
- Data visualization experience (D3, WebGL, dashboards); geospatial a plus.
- Experience building or maintaining a design system.
- Experience designing debugging/inspection UIs for generative AI systems.
- Experience with Electron (or similar).
- Experience with user experience design for video games or interactive media.
- Experience designing for "low code" or "no code" systems.
- Comfort reading C++ and/or Python and/or Go.
Skills
As published by lever · 19 questions · 9 written answers
Basics
Which location are you applying for?, Resume/CV, Full name, Email, Phone, Current location, Current company, LinkedIn URL, Twitter URL, GitHub URL, Portfolio URL, Other website
Short answers (1)
- Please state your full legal name:
Pick from a list (9)
- Are you authorized to work in the United States?
- Will you require sponsorship for employment now or in the future?
- This position may require access to information and technology that is subject to export controls, such as EAR. Are you any of the following?
- Shield AI provides technology, services, and support to the United States military and allied forces with their various missions. If selected for employment with Shield AI, your contributions will directly relate to and/or support these missions. Are there any reasons why you would not be able to fully contribute in support of the U.S. military and allied forces?
- How did you hear about us?
- Are you a transitioning service member?
- If yes, what partnership program are you working with? optional
- Are you local to or willing to relocate? optional
- What office(s) would you be willing to relocate to? (Select all that apply) optional
Written answers (9)
- If yes, what type of sponsorship? optional
- If you selected "A protected Individual" OR "Other" to the above question, please explain further. optional
- (Optional) If you selected other or would like to expand on the above, feel free to do so below: optional
- If "Industry Conference" or "Other," please provide more details: optional
- If other, please provide further details optional
- When are you available to start your fellowship? optional
- When are you available for full time work? optional
- What full time job(s) are you applying for?
- If you selected international, what location(s)? optional