Founding Design Engineer

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., * 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.

• 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.

• Salary: $180,000 - $220,000 USD annually
• Founding team equity
• Team hubs in San Francisco and Amsterdam, serving North American and European markets

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.