Founding Design Engineer
Location: San Francisco, CA Work Arrangement: In-office Monday–Friday initially, transitioning to hybrid over time Employment: Full-time Visa: Open to eligible visa transfers and relocation support About the Company We’re working with a fast-growing, venture-backed AI startup building tools that help technical and business teams create, deploy, and manage AI-powered workflows and agents. The company is approximately 20 people, works with sophisticated technology companies, and is entering an important stage of product and brand development. They’re now hiring a Founding Design Engineer to establish the visual language, product experience, and design systems that will shape the company as it scales. The Role This is not a traditional product design role where you create Figma files and hand them to engineering. You’ll operate at the intersection of product design, visual/brand design, and frontend engineering , owning how the company looks, feels, and behaves across both product and marketing surfaces. You’ll work directly with the CEO and engineering team to define the design function from the ground up. A major focus will be shaping a new developer-facing knowledge and content product, while also building the systems that allow the broader team to ship consistently at a high design bar. What You’ll Own Product Design Own product design end-to-end across complex workflows involving developers, teams, content, knowledge, and AI-powered experiences. Translate ambiguous product problems into intuitive, polished interfaces. Work directly with users and internal stakeholders to identify friction and continuously improve the product experience. Design Engineering Turn your own designs into production-ready interfaces. Build and maintain frontend components using technologies such as: React
Next.js
TypeScript
Storybook
Tailwind CSS
shadcn
Work directly inside the production codebase rather than relying entirely on engineering handoffs. Design Systems Create and evolve the company’s design system from the ground up. Own: Component libraries
Design tokens
Interaction patterns
Documentation
UI standards
Code-first design infrastructure
Build systems that help engineers move quickly while maintaining consistency and craft. Brand & Visual Design Help establish the company’s broader visual language across product and brand. You may work on: Landing pages
Product launches
Marketing campaigns
Social content
Motion and micro-interactions
Typography
Layout systems
Visual storytelling
Brand assets
The goal is to create one cohesive design language across every customer touchpoint. What We’re Looking For Must-Haves Approximately 5–10 years of experience spanning product design, visual/brand design, and design engineering
Experience as a first, founding, or sole designer at an early-stage startup, ideally Seed through Series B
Strong portfolio demonstrating a high level of visual and product craft
Experience owning both product design and brand/marketing design
Hands-on experience shipping production frontend UI
Strong working knowledge of React and/or Next.js
Experience building or extending design systems
Deep proficiency with Figma
Comfortable working directly in a production codebase
Comfortable operating with significant autonomy and ambiguity
Based in San Francisco or willing to relocate
Comfortable working from the San Francisco office five days per week initially
Strong Plus Experience with Storybook, Tailwind CSS, and shadcn
Experience designing products for developers or technical buyers
Background in developer tools, B2B SaaS, infrastructure, or AI products
Experience joining a startup early and building the design function from scratch
Strong frontend engineering instincts
Experience with animation, motion, or interactive web design
This Role Is Probably Not a Fit If Your experience is primarily Figma-only product design
You no longer regularly design or build hands-on
Your background is exclusively brand or exclusively product design
You prefer handing designs off rather than implementing them yourself
You need significant structure or clearly defined processes to operate effectively
You are primarily looking for a design-management role
What Success Looks Like You’ll become the person responsible for raising the design bar across the company. You’ll help define: How the product feels
How the brand communicates
How the frontend is built
How engineers use the design system
How new products and features are visually expressed
You’ll have unusually broad ownership and the opportunity to establish the design foundations of an early-stage AI company from the ground up. Interview Process
- Initial Portfolio Screen — 45 minutes
Deep dive into your work across product, visual design, brand, and design engineering.
- CEO Conversation
Discuss the product, company direction, role scope, and design philosophy.
- Design Exercise — approximately 2–4 hours
A practical exercise based on a real product or design problem. The focus is systems thinking, visual judgment, product craft, and execution.
- Final Team Interview — approximately 45 minutes
Meet members of engineering and go-to-market to assess collaboration, communication, and how you work cross-functionally.
- Offer
About Sperton Sperton _____ is part of Sperton Global, a recruitment and consulting company with an international reach. We are committed to helping our clients achieve success in their hiring processes, finding the right people for the right positions.