Founding Design Engineer

About the role

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.