Founding Design Engineer
- Authorization to work in the US — visa sponsorship is not available.
Founding Design Engineer at seed-stage AI-native B2B SaaS, on-site in SF, owning design system and frontend architecture. Salary $180k-$220k.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We're a fast-moving team of under ten — pricing experts and engineers — shipping UI rapidly with the help of AI coding agents that write production pull requests. Speed isn't our challenge; coherence is. As our Founding Design Engineer, you'll own it: the design tokens, the component library, and the frontend and conversational interface patterns that make everything we ship — human-written or agent-written — feel like a single, polished product.
This is a rare founding-level opportunity to set the frontend bar for a Seed-stage AI-native B2B SaaS company operating at the intersection of pricing intelligence, agentic workflows, and enterprise deal management. You'll have hubs in San Francisco and Amsterdam, but this role is based on-site in San Francisco.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Own and evolve the design system end-to-end: design tokens, a shadcn/ui-based component library, and Tailwind conventions applied consistently across the product suite.
- Define and enforce frontend patterns using React Query, React Hook Form, and Zod so that agent-written PRs land coherently by default.
- Translate design intent into tokens, component abstractions, and lint rules to maintain visual and interaction coherence at scale.
- Enforce WCAG accessibility standards and integrate brand guidelines directly into the codebase.
- Audit and own frontend tooling and quality: Biome configuration, Playwright E2E coverage, and frontend performance.
- Integrate and champion AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) into frontend workflows, acting as the guide for how AI agents produce UI-consistent output.
- Act as the sole bar-raiser for frontend UX across the company — reviewing PRs, setting standards, and upholding quality regardless of who (or what) wrote the code.
- Contribute to conversational and AI-native interface patterns such as streaming responses and generative views.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
Required
- 5+ years building polished, production product interfaces, with a portfolio of shipped features to demonstrate it.
- Proven ownership of a design system or component library in production as the primary owner — a public repo, portfolio, or detailed walkthrough is acceptable.
- Deep expertise in React, strict TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and component primitives (shadcn/ui, Radix UI).
- Hands-on experience enforcing WCAG accessibility rules and embedding brand guidelines in code.
- Experience auditing and maintaining frontend tooling: Biome, Playwright E2E, and performance optimization.
- Practical experience with AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor) in a production frontend workflow.
- Comfort being the single owner of frontend UX standards across an entire company — you set the bar and hold it.
- Authorization to work in the US — visa sponsorship is not available.
Nice to Have
- Experience building non-standard AI interfaces (e.g., streaming responses, generative/dynamic 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 stake
- Opportunity to shape product, team culture, and engineering standards from day one
LOCATION
On-site in San Francisco, CA. The team maintains hubs in San Francisco and Amsterdam. This role is based in San Francisco. Remote arrangements are not available for this position.