Associate Director, UI/UX Architect, Agentic Factory

Position Summary Vista Equity Partners is seeking a hands-on UI/UX Architect to design and ship the front-end experiences that bring agentic AI products to life across our 90+ portfolio companies. This role sits at the center of Vista’s Agentic Factory, our methodology for collaborating with portfolio companies to identify high-value agentic use cases and rapidly build production AI agents that deliver measurable business impact. The ideal candidate pairs deep product design and front-end engineering skill with the ability to move fast — prototyping and shipping production-track interfaces in hours, not sprints — and to collaborate closely, often on-site, during compressed build cycles. You will work directly with portfolio company product and engineering teams to design and ship front-ends and user flows that build on existing UIs to integrate new agentic functionality. This is a deeply hands-on role centered on design and front-end engineering work alongside the portfolio product teams. Responsibilities Portfolio Company Collaboration & Rapid Front-End Delivery Partner with portfolio company product and engineering teams to design and ship front-ends and user flows that integrate new agentic functionality into existing products. Rapidly prototype — in hours — interactive, production-track interfaces that demonstrate agentic value, then iterate collaboratively with the team. Lead end-to-end delivery of the UI/UX layer for agent implementations using Vista’s Agentic Factory methodology, targeting MVP delivery in weeks. Translate emerging agentic patterns — chat, copilots, autonomous workflows, human-in-the-loop review — into intuitive, trustworthy interaction models. UI/UX Architecture & Design Systems Design scalable, maintainable front-end architectures in React/TypeScript that integrate cleanly with cloud-deployed agentic backends. Build and extend reusable design systems and component libraries that let portfolio teams ship consistent agentic experiences at speed. Define interaction patterns for agentic UX, including surfacing agent reasoning, confidence, citations, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints calibrated to risk and domain complexity. Establish standards for accessibility, responsiveness, and front-end performance across portfolio deployments. Design & AI Innovation Serve as a subject matter expert on agentic UX and modern front-end practice, providing thought leadership and hands-on guidance to portfolio companies and Vista leadership. Identify and evaluate emerging front-end frameworks, design tooling, and AI interface patterns, assessing their impact on portfolio company product roadmaps. Develop and evangelize best practices for agentic interface design, prototyping velocity, and front-end quality across the portfolio. Due Diligence Assist in the due diligence process for potential portfolio companies, assessing product UX maturity, front-end technical debt, and readiness for agentic AI adoption. Provide design and front-end assessments that inform investment decisions and post-acquisition value creation plans. What You Are an Expert In Technical Expertise Front-end engineering with React and TypeScript, modern CSS (e.g., Tailwind), and component-driven architecture Product design and prototyping in Figma, including design systems and interactive prototypes Rapid prototyping and production delivery under compressed timelines Integrating front-ends with cloud-deployed agentic backends (e.g., LangGraph/LangChain, REST and streaming APIs) UX for AI: chat and copilot interfaces, agent observability, and human-in-the-loop workflows Accessibility, responsive design, and front-end performance optimization Operational Expertise Rapid proof-of-value delivery and compressed development cycles Cross-organizational, often on-site collaboration and stakeholder management across multiple companies simultaneously Translating design and front-end decisions for both technical and executive audiences Problem-solving and analytical thinking in ambiguous environments Qualifications Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, or a related field — or equivalent demonstrated experience. 5+ years shipping production-grade product front-ends and user experiences at scale, with recent hands-on experience integrating interfaces with AI or agentic backends. Demonstrated track record of shipping polished product UI to production environments, not just prototypes. Fluency with React and a modern design toolchain (Figma, design systems), with the ability to move from concept to working interface quickly. Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills. Experience within private equity portfolio companies, consulting, or multi-client environments is a strong plus. The annualized base pay range for this role is expected to be between $160,000 - $210,000. Actual base pay could vary based on factors including but not limited to experience, subject matter expertise, geographic location where work will be performed and the applicant’s skill set. The base pay is just one component of the total compensation package for employees. Other components may include an annual cash bonus and a comprehensive benefits package.