Product Design Fellowship, Virtual Inspections

Product Design Fellowship, Virtual Inspections Location: Bay Area preferred (hybrid); open to strong remote candidates within California. About Us SolarAPP+ is cutting the costs of the clean energy transition, making it so that everyone can afford to power their lives with clean energy. Our automated plan review and permitting software reduces soft costs by turning a weeks-long bureaucratic process into instant approval. We are already deployed in over 500 cities across 17 states, with more than 150,000 permits issued, representing over 800MW of clean energy. We are growing fast to expand our impact, developing Virtual Inspection: an end-to-end capability to verify and approve completed solar and battery installations through photo and video evidence rather than in-person visits. This unlocks the second half of the residential clean energy permitting and inspection bottleneck and serves governments and contractors with a complete solution for streamlining electrification. About the Role We are hiring a Product Design Fellow to own the design of SolarAPP+'s Virtual Inspection product from the ground up. This is a 0-to-1 role with real user impact from day one. We have jurisdiction partners lined up and eager to use the product; your work will be in front of real government inspectors and field installers within weeks of your start date. Virtual Inspection has two primary users with tightly coupled workflows: installers capturing digital evidence on rooftops and in garages, and local government inspectors reviewing that evidence to issue final approval. You’ll design both halves of this interaction, the critical capture phase at the project, and the review phase by the jurisdiction. You will partner daily with the Head of Product and the Founding Engineer. You will be the first designer dedicated to this product. As a fellow, you'll have an incredible opportunity to break into the climate technology industry and learn about the clean energy ecosystem, specifically solar, storage, and other home electrification technologies. You'll get to work with leaders at the SolarAPP Foundation and across the industry, building strong connections to further your career in the clean energy space. Note that this fellowship is targeting mid to senior level product designers with or without experience in climate tech. Reports to: Head of Product, Virtual Inspection What You'll Do This is a founding design role. You will go from user research and rough wireframes to production-ready designs across two distinct interfaces. Design the installer capture experience, end to end. Step-by-step guided photo/video capture for residential energy projects, optimized for outdoor environments and built for installers who do not have time to learn a new app. Design the AHJ inspector review interface. Web-first review portal for local government inspectors to work through a digital evidence submission queue. Design an intuitive interface that builds inspector trust and supports accurate, efficient remote inspections. Partner with the Head of Product on user research. Conduct prototype testing with installers and inspectors in the field. Translate raw field findings into design decisions. You are embedded in user discovery, not handed specs to execute. Work daily with the Founding Engineer. As the core member of a small, nimble AI-native team, you will communicate design intent clearly, flag hard-to-implement choices early, and iterate design quickly when implementation reveals engineering constraints. What You Bring Essential Skills and Background 5+ years of product design experience, with a portfolio showing end-to-end ownership from user research through shipped product. Demonstrated ability to design for non-technical users working in variable physical conditions. Ability to iterate product design quickly through experimentation and real user feedback. Strong command of AI design tools to move faster, not to think less: you have strong independent design taste that holds up under AI-assisted ideation. Authorized to work in the U.S.; California residency preferred (this role is grant-funded). Additional Preferred Skills and Background Background in service design: you have mapped end-to-end journeys spanning mobile and web across multiple distinct user types. Experience with government technology, construction, renewable energy, and other regulated industries, or workflows where audit trails and chain-of-custody matter. Experience designing human-in-the-loop workflows: you know how to present AI confidence without training users to blindly accept or blindly ignore it. Compensation and Benefits This is a 3-month to 6-month contract position (candidate dependent) with flat rate compensation of $10,000 to $16,000 / month, commensurate with experience. Extension or conversion to a full-time role is possible depending on product progress and team needs; we will be transparent about this timeline throughout the engagement. Equal Opportunity Employer SolarAPP Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and strongly encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. #J-18808-Ljbffr