Founding Design Engineer

• Design and ship product UI end to end in the React and TypeScript codebase, through code review, to production.
• Design how advisors work with agents, including drafts, sources, confidence, approvals, undo and hand-offs to a person.
• Build and own the design system and component library.
• Make dense financial data clear on desktop and usable on a phone.
• Prototype in code with pilot advisors and turn successful ideas into production features.
• Improve polish, interaction, motion, empty and error states, accessibility and speed.
• Work directly with pilot-firm advisors, observe their use, and address friction.

• Portfolio of products personally designed and built that real people use.
• Strong product design fundamentals.
• Production front-end skills: React, TypeScript, modern CSS, component libraries, git and pull requests.
• Comfort working safely in a shared codebase and knowing when to involve an engineer.
• Regular use of AI tools such as Claude Code or Cursor, with judgment to check and fix their output.
• Opinions on AI product UX, including streaming, citations, uncertainty and human approval.
• High agency and ability to identify problems, decide with imperfect information and ship.

Nice to have: fintech or wealthtech experience; dense data-heavy professional tools; startup design-system ownership; agent/AI-native product design; data visualization and reporting; mobile and responsive design for professional users.

Full-time. Reports to the co-founders. Base salary $150,000-$175,000; early-team equity grant sized by experience. Paid sick leave; health insurance and 401(k) are under discussion but not offered yet. AI tools covered. Applications accepted on an ongoing basis. Final offers contingent on a background check.

Own how Helmsted looks, feels and works for wealth advisors of complex households, and ship it yourself in production code.

About Helmsted: Advisors use Helmsted for financial planning, tax and estate analysis, meetings and their client portal, with the goal of replacing a firm’s entire tech stack. The team is small, works with pilot firms, and ships every day.