Founding Design Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

About the Role

This is a founding-level, high-ownership role at a fast-growing Seed-stage startup building an AI-native platform for pricing strategy and deal intelligence. The team ships UI fast — a small, tight-knit group augmented by AI coding agents writing production pull requests. Speed is not the problem. Coherence is. This role owns it: design tokens, the component library, and the frontend and conversational interface patterns that make everything the team ships — human-written or agent-written — feel like one cohesive product.

You'll be the sole bar-raiser for frontend UX across the company, setting and enforcing standards as the team scales 2–3× in the next 12 months. If founding-level ownership and entrepreneurship energize rather than intimidate you, this role is for you.

What You'll Do

• Own the design system end-to-end: design tokens, component library, and documentation — ensuring every shipped surface feels intentional and unified.

• Define and enforce frontend standards across the codebase, including accessibility (WCAG), brand guidelines, and code quality tooling (Biome configuration, Playwright E2E coverage, frontend performance).

• Build and maintain reusable, production-grade UI components using React, strict TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and component primitives (shadcn/ui, Radix UI).

• Shape conversational and AI-driven interface patterns, including streaming responses and generative views, for B2B end-users.

• Integrate AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) into frontend workflows and help the team maintain quality as agent-generated code scales.

• Partner directly with founders and product/engineering teammates to translate pricing intelligence workflows into polished, high-performance interfaces.

• Audit and continuously improve frontend tooling, performance, and accessibility across the product.

What We're Looking For

Required

• 5+ years building product interfaces, with a portfolio demonstrating a consistent bar for polish and shipped features.

• Proven primary ownership of a design system or component library in production (public repo, portfolio, or detailed walkthrough acceptable).

• Deep expertise in React, strict TypeScript, Tailwind CSS , and component primitives (shadcn/ui, Radix UI).

• Strong command of WCAG accessibility standards and experience integrating brand guidelines into a codebase.

• Hands-on experience with frontend quality tooling: Biome, Playwright E2E, and frontend performance optimization.

• Practical experience using AI coding tools in production (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) and integrating them into frontend workflows.

• Comfort acting as the sole senior voice for frontend UX standards across an entire company.

• Must be authorized to work in the US — visa sponsorship is not available at this time.

Nice to Have

• Experience building non-standard AI interfaces (streaming responses, generative views).

• Experience designing and shipping conversational interfaces or chatbots for B2B end-users.

• Familiarity with constrained UI spaces: Slack Block Kit, Microsoft Teams Adaptive Cards, or CLI design patterns.

• Experience with animation and UI state transitions (e.g., Framer Motion, Radix) to enhance perceived speed and polish.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $180,000 – $220,000 USD annually

• Founding team equity

• Team hubs in San Francisco and Amsterdam, serving North American and European markets

Location

This is an on-site role based in San Francisco, CA . The team operates out of the San Francisco hub. Remote-only arrangements are not available for this position.