Founding Design Engineer

ABOUT THE ROLE 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. You'll be the sole bar-raiser for frontend UX across the company, setting and enforcing standards as the team scales 2–3× in the next 12 months. If founding-level ownership and entrepreneurship energize rather than intimidate you, this role is for you. WHAT YOU'LL DO - 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. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Required - 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. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS - Salary: $180,000 – $220,000 USD annually - Founding team equity - Team hubs in San Francisco and Amsterdam, serving North American and European markets LOCATION 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.