Founding Designer

Compensation: $120,000 – $185,000 + meaningful equity

Location: San Francisco preferred; remote possible with regular time-on-site

About the Role

You will define the product and brand experience end-to-end, including hardware feel, app flows, motion language, and narrative. As the first designer, you will set the design system, codify quality, and partner closely with engineering to ensure what we ship matches what we imagine.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end product design for mobile (and companion web where needed).
Develop a design system that scales across features, platforms, and marketing.
Specify motion and micro-interactions that communicate state and delight.
Drive visual identity across app, website, packaging, and launch assets.
Partner with engineering for spec fidelity; measure design quality in production.
Run lightweight research (usability tests, intercepts); synthesize insights into decisions.
Establish documentation: usage rules, accessibility, content and voice guidelines.

What We’re Looking For

Core Requirements

4+ years in product/brand design with shipped consumer work.
Portfolio shows functional UX and world-class visual craft.
Expert in Figma (auto-layout, variants, tokens) and prototyping.
Motion proficiency (Principle/After Effects/Rive/Lottie) for interaction specs.
Experience with design systems, accessibility, and design-to-dev workflows.

Nice to Have

Hardware/CMF sensibilities; packaging and unboxing experience.
Content design/copywriting for onboarding and in-product education.
Analytics-informed iteration; experimentation with clear success metrics.

Collaboration Interfaces

Weekly design crit; definition-of-done checklists shared with engineering.
Source of truth in Figma; versioned artifacts; “redlines”/tokens auto-export.
Design QA embedded in CI (golden screenshots, visual diff where applicable).

What We Offer

Competitive salary and equity
Health, dental, vision; flexible PTO; remote/hybrid options
Best-in-class tools (Figma, motion, testing devices, prototyping kits)
Creative budget for references, fonts, and materials
We take care of you so you can build the future

How to Apply

We’re not looking for “designers who can make things look nice.” We’re looking for taste-driven builders who can show proof of greatness.

The bar is simple:

You’ve shipped something exceptional: your design work is in the hands of 100k+ people, or it’s become part of a product that mattered.
Or, you’ve been on a legendary team: you’ve seen how the best in the world design, ship, and obsess over details.

If that’s you, DM me with your portfolio!