Product Designer

About Consensus:

Consensus is building the OS for research. Today, our academic search engine helps millions of students, researchers, and doctors analyze scientific papers and complete literature reviews 10x faster. We’re applying the latest in AI agents to move science forward and make the world’s best researchers dramatically more capable.

Our Series A was led by USV, with major participation from top AI investors, including Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. Consensus has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Nature, and a16z. Our mission is to empower the world to understand, create, and apply good science.

Role:

You'll be the team's second product designer, working alongside our founding designer (Pablo Garces) and a lean engineering team. You'll own major product areas as we scale from search into a platform, shaping how millions of people interact with scientific knowledge.

There's no solidified design system, and no handed-down specs. You'll pick the right tool for the job; a polished mock, a scrappy A/B test, a user interview, or shipping a fix directly in code. High ambiguity, big ownership, real impact. If you want structure, this isn't it. If you want to define how AI reshapes research, it is.

What You’ll Do

• Own design end-to-end for entire product areas as we scale: agentic research flows, research workspaces, collaboration, personalization, growth, and new products.
• Ship fast with engineering. We value speed and taste over process and perfection.
• Design complex, information-dense interfaces that feel simple to a broad userbase. We serve millions of users ranging from PhD researchers to undergrads to doctors.
• Build and iterate in code when it makes sense. We’re excited about designers who use AI tools (Cursor, Claude Code, etc.) to prototype and ship directly.
• Contribute to brand and marketing design. This isn’t a marketing role, but range here is a real plus.
• Find problems before they’re assigned. Use data, user feedback, and your own product sense to drive what gets built.

Who You Are

• 4+ years of product design experience, ideally at startups, in AI, or in fast-paced environments.
• Interest in the product and mission: science, research, education.
• You have a portfolio that gets to the point: the problem, the thinking, the outcome. Bonus points for live links we can click and explore.
• Track record of leading design on large, complex projects with no clear right answer.
• Strong visual eye: layout, typography, spacing, polish. You care about the details that most people don’t notice.
• Some familiarity with frontend (React/Typescript) and hands-on experience with AI coding tools for prototyping or shipping.
• Sharp prioritization. You focus on what matters most and avoid over-designing perfection in a sandbox.

Compensation

• $160–250k cash
• Meaningful early stage equity

Final offers are determined by multiple factors and may vary from the amounts listed above.