Founding Design Engineer
Helium
Self-Improving Software
Helium is building Self-Improving Software: AI that automatically generates & tests new software experiences to lift revenue. We're...
Talent-dense (8 people, 6 engineers, 75% ex-founders)
Well-funded ($6M from Google & Leaders from OpenAI)
Fast-growing (Serving tens of millions of AI experiences per day for top consumer companies).
AI has created a once-in-history opportunity, and we're here to win, because of that...
We work hard — In-Office Monday–Friday + often push through weekends
What You'll Do
Own design across Helium's entire AI Experience generation product, including...
- Design and implement end-to-end user flows including...
- Using Helium's AI editor to generate new in-app experiences
- Running experiments and automatically analyzing results
- Receiving and critiquing auto-generated experiences
- Help engineers think through UX challenges and critique / uplevel design generally
- Build out a visual identity and a design system
- Work directly with the founders to help build out our team.
- Talk to customers every week about how to simplify and improve our product
- Wearing a lot more hats than listed above.
What We're Looking For
You should be a designer-who-codes (or an engineer with taste)
- 1-4+ years as a product designer, frontend engineer, or similar role combining design and implementation
- Deep expertise in modern frontend technologies (React, TypeScript, modern CSS)
- Excellent design taste and a keen eye for detail
- Track record of making complex user flows intuitive (Making "The simple simple and the complex possible")
Nice To Haves
- Experience designing interfaces for AI products or ML-powered features
- Experience optimizing frontend performance and reducing latency
- Experience with brand, visual design, or creating design systems.
- Founder experience
Reasons This Role Might Not Be A Fit
- You'd like to spend weeks perfecting every experience
- You avoid Cursor or AI coding tools.
- You don't want to talk to customers or figure out the end-to-end plan for features.
Requirements
- This is a full-time, in-person role based in San Francisco - we work from the office 6 days a week (Mon-Sat)
- You must be based in the Bay Area or willing to relocate before starting.
- We require US work authorization, but are open to O-1 visa sponsorship for truly exceptional candidates.
Our stack: Next.js (React/Typescript), Zustand, AI (vercel) SDK, Tailwind/Shadcn, Supabase, Clickhouse, Golang/Fly.io, Mobile: Swift, Flutter, Expo, Android
Requires Bachelors degree or higher in Computer Science or similar fields.
$180k - $220k
About the Role This is a founding-level, high-ownership position sitting at the intersection of design and engineering. You'll be the sole bar-raiser for frontend UX across a fast-moving, early-stage B2B SaaS company building an AI-powered pricing optimization platform....SuggestedRemote work$150k - $250k
...Design Engineer Location: San Francisco (in-person, in-office, full-time ONLY) Compensation: $150k-$250k base + $25K-$50K cash bonus... ...impact and ownership ~ Meaningful equity upside as part of the founding team ~ Medical, dental, and vision insurance ~401(k) plan...SuggestedFull timeWork at officeRelocation package- ...Design Engineer Role At Jinba Design engineer who owns the full visual and interactive experience of Jinba's platform. You'll build our... ...ship production code alongside the engineering team. This is a founding design role for someone who wants to shape how enterprise...Suggested
- ...Founding Design Engineer As Weave's Founding Design Engineer, your job is to make complex engineering data feel simple, beautiful and actionable. You'll own the intersection of design and engineering, turning insights about how software teams work into interfaces that...Suggested
- ...slide deck, merchandise, or factory) should communicate the quality and ambition of our company behind it. As Orchard’s Founding Design Engineer, you will establish the design function and own design across product, brand, marketing, software engineering, hardware,...SuggestedFull timeWeekend work
- ...opportunity. If you’re hungry to take ownership and build systems that matter, this is it. About The Role We’re hiring a Design Engineer to join our founding team in building the future of healthcare compliance AI. You’ll work directly with the founders, owning entire...Night shift
$150k - $250k
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...H1b- Jinba is seeking a design engineer to own the full visual and interactive experience of its platform. You will build the design system from... ..., and ship production code with the engineering team. This founding design role shapes how enterprise users interact with AI-native...
$100k - $150k
.... Work that used to take teams of lawyers weeks now happens in minutes. YC S24, founded by a former M&A attorney from Kirkland & Ellis and Gunderson Dettmer. We're hiring a design engineer to own how the product looks, feels, and works. You'll design features in Figma,...$180k - $250k
...cutting edge start up client who is distrusting the hardware engineering design workflow by creating AI training environments that will... ...high technical stakes. Is excited by the idea of joining a founding engineering team—helping build the function, not just join it...Full time$180 per hour
...built on deep pricing experience from our founding team who have run over 150 pricing... ...assembled our team of 8 (pricing experts and engineers) to deliver that capability. Our main... ...Coherence is, and this role owns it: the design tokens, the component library, the frontend...Work experience placementWork at officeImmediate startVisa sponsorshipFlexible hours- HIKINEX is seeking a Founding Design Engineer in San Francisco to define the user experience of an AI platform. This role involves owning both design and frontend implementation, focusing on creating intuitive B2B software and AI experiences. The perfect candidate will...
- Orchard Robotics seeks a Founding Design Engineer to establish the design function across product, brand, marketing, software, hardware, and our physical environments. You will work directly with our CEO and leaders to move from ambiguous problems to finished artifacts...
- Orchard is building an entirely new way for farmers to understand and operate their farms. As Orchard's Founding Design Engineer, you will establish the design function and own design across product, brand, marketing, software engineering, hardware, and our physical environments...
- ...Founding Product Engineer — Smart Bricks (USA Launch) Location: San Francisco, CA Type: Full-time Team: Founding Team (USA) Smart Bricks is building the world’s AI-native real estate investment infrastructure. Think of us as Bloomberg + Robinhood for global real estate...Full time
- ...facing applications on top of it. As an engineer at Witness, you'll play a critical role... .... This will involve researching, designing, and implementing novel engineering solutions... ...neon.tech About The Role For the Founding Product Engineer role, we're looking for...Remote workFlexible hours
- ...We founded Bild AI to tackle the mess that is blueprint reading, cost estimation, and permit applications in construction. It's a really... ...Actually use the algorithms, data structures, and system design that you learned Revolutionize how people read blueprints today...Full timeWork at officeRelocation
- ...Founding Product Engineer This high-growth technology company is building essential financial infrastructure to support and grow America's... ...candidate will own the full-stack product lifecycle: scoping, designing, shipping, and iterating in the field. This role requires...Remote work
$190k - $210k
...Founding Product Engineer Title of Role: Founding Product Engineer Location: San Francisco, CA, Hybrid Company Stage of Funding... ...and Go. Collaborate closely with product managers and designers to ensure high-quality user experiences that meet market needs...Work at office$150k - $200k
...identify the highest-leverage problem, design the solution, build it, ship it, and own... ...true generalist. Backend, frontend, AI engineering, data systems, product thinking, growth... ...agentic frameworks The Pace This is a founding role at a fast growing company. We work...Local areaNight shiftWeekend work- ...About The Role As a founding engineer, you'll bring our MVP product to maturity and help define the technical architecture of a new category... ...of software. You will work on frontier engineering and design questions about how to best marry code and intelligence. You'...
- ...University of Technology at 15. Joined Taobao at 17. At Alibaba, architected the core recommendation engine serving 500M daily users. What You'll Do: This is the first design hire at Sirius, and we're looking for an engineer first - someone who ships production UI...Full timeFlexible hours
- ...every day. Free lunch and dinners, competitive salary and equity. Flexible health coverage and 401K matching. We're looking for a design engineer who obsesses over how software looks and feels to join us in San Francisco. You'll own the product surface end-to-end–from...Flexible hours
$190k - $210k
...well-funded, early-stage fintech startup is looking for a Founding Product Engineer to join a small, senior team building a new kind of collaborative... ...with a 40,000+ person waitlist. What You'll Do Design, develop, and deliver features, fixes, and improvements...Remote work$140k - $180k
...Job Description Job Description About the Role This is a founding engineering role at a seed-stage legal AI company, where you'll build core product features from the ground up alongside attorneys and AI engineers. You'll help shape the engineering culture and technical...Full timeContract work$200k - $250k
...discount governance, and CPQ workflows. We're looking for a Founding Product Engineer to own entire product modules end-to-end, work directly... ...Financial logic correctness, AI-native tooling, and clean API design are first-class priorities here. What You'll Do Own...Remote workVisa sponsorship- Open call for Founders / Founding Teams (Product Management / Engineering roles) In 1973 at Xerox PARC, Bob Metcalfe sketched a way for many computers to share a single wire — borrowing the throughput math from his study of Hawaii's ALOHAnet — and he and David Boggs built...
- Clera is seeking a founding-level frontend design lead who fuses design and engineering to raise the bar across a fast-moving B2B SaaS pricing platform. You’ll own the frontend UX, from the design system to conversational surfaces on Slack and Teams, ensuring a cohesive...
- ...Free lunch and dinners, competitive salary and equity. Flexible health coverage and 401K matching. We're looking for a design engineer who obsesses over how software looks and feels to join us in San Francisco. You'll own the product surface end-to-end–from concept...Full timeFlexible hours
- A tech startup in San Francisco is looking for a creative design engineer to craft intuitive interfaces for advanced IDEs. Ideal candidates should have strong design skills, a passion for software, and previous startup experience. The role emphasizes rapid prototyping and...
Do you want to receive more vacancies?
Subscribe and receive similar vacancies to Founding Design Engineer. Be the first to apply!
- physical design engineer San Francisco, CA
- senior product design engineer San Francisco, CA
- data center design engineer San Francisco, CA
- senior design verification engineer San Francisco, CA
- staff design engineer San Francisco, CA
- product engineering intern San Francisco, CA
- soc design engineer San Francisco, CA
- design assurance engineer San Francisco, CA
- manufacturing design engineer San Francisco, CA
- senior manager product engineering San Francisco, CA


