Founding designer

We are looking for one designer to own something bigger than screens: the system by which we produce great product. The design system is part of it. So is the AI-native workflow, the standards that make our builders self-sufficient, and the last-mile craft that makes Sherpas feel considered.

Most teams split design and engineering: designers make screens in Figma, engineers turn them into code. We are building the opposite. Our engineers are becoming product builders — they own a surface end to end, generate first drafts with AI, and ship. That model only works if someone architects the craft layer underneath it and keeps making it faster and better over time.

That someone is you. Your job is to industrialise good product production: design the pipeline, not just the pixels. You are a force multiplier on everyone else's output, never a queue they hand work to.

• The production system. How does a rough idea become a shipped, on-brand, obviously crafted surface — repeatably, and fast? You design and continuously improve that whole pipeline: the tools, the standards, the handoffs, the feedback loops. This is the core of the role.

• The design system — human and machine. Evolve our system (DM Sans, DM Mono, Playfair Display; a restrained palette anchored on a deep navy and a confident blue) as the source of truth in Figma and as components, tokens and Claude skills that make AI-generated screens look intentional — never generically "AI".

• The last mile. Take priority surfaces from "works" to "obviously crafted". The micro-interactions, the rhythm, the details. This is where you are irreplaceable.

• The codify loop. Every pattern you polish by hand goes back into the system and the AI skills, so the next first draft from a builder is already better.

• The AI-native design workflow. The tooling here is moving fast — chat, design agents, skills, new component ecosystems, integrations. You stay at the frontier, decide what is worth adopting, and bring the team along. A standing mandate, not a side quest.

• The team's bar. You review builders' work in a way that makes them better, not just in a way that fixes it. You can articulate why something works and pass that judgement on.

• Growing into product UX. Over time, as you earn it, you take ownership of flows and information architecture across the platform. We will partner closely here before handing it over.

• You think in systems. You see the machine behind the output, and you cannot help improving it. Given a messy production process, you make it faster, cleaner and higher-quality without lowering the bar. This is the rarest thing on this list and the one we care about most.
• You design and code. You are fluent in the front end (React, HTML/CSS) and you prototype in the browser, not just in Figma.
• You come from a consumer-grade craft background and want the meatier problems of B2B — or you have already proven you can make B2B feel as good as B2C. Our product is B2B with a B2C soul.
• You are compulsively curious about new tools. You play with the new thing the week it ships because you cannot help it. We will want to see this in what you have built — not in posts about it.
• You can teach taste. You make the people around you sharper.
• You have opinions and the craft to back them up.

• Not a Figma operator handing static mockups to engineers.
• Not a service desk that other teams route tickets to.
• Not a place where AI thought-leadership substitutes for shipped, crafted work.

If "own and industrialise how we make product" sounds like a downgrade from being the lead decision-maker on every screen, this is not the role. If it sounds like the most leveraged design job at the company, it is.

You sit in product, not inside engineering. You pair with the product builders: they generate the first pass pulling from your system and skills, you elevate the surfaces that matter and fold what you learn back into the machine. You partner with our CPO on flows and with the founders on product direction. Remote-first, async-friendly, trusted to own your craft.

1. A conversation about your work and how you think.
2. A paid trial project — real, small, scoped.
3. A working session where we design and critique together.