About this role
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.
Location
United States
Employment type
Full-time
Job location
San Francisco
At Sperton, we believe that great results come from great people.
Our culture is built on trust, collaboration, and a shared passion for delivering quality in everything we do.
We are a Norwegian-owned international company with colleagues across Europe, Asia, and the USA, working together seamlessly across time zones and cultures. Our teams are diverse, yet united by the same goal — to connect people and companies in meaningful ways.
We value openness, initiative, and continuous learning. Everyone at Sperton is encouraged to take ownership, share ideas, and challenge existing ways of working to make our solutions even better.
Even though we operate globally, our approach is personal. We take pride in creating a supportive and inclusive environment where people feel heard, respected, and motivated to grow — both professionally and personally.
United States
·
Onsite
Shape the future of an AI startup as its Founding Design Engineer — craft the product, brand, and design system while building polished experiences directly in code.
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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.
Location
United States
Employment type Full-time
Job location San Francisco
At Sperton, we believe that great results come from great people.
Our culture is built on trust, collaboration, and a shared passion for delivering quality in everything we do.
We are a Norwegian-owned international company with colleagues across Europe, Asia, and the USA, working together seamlessly across time zones and cultures. Our teams are diverse, yet united by the same goal — to connect people and companies in meaningful ways.
We value openness, initiative, and continuous learning. Everyone at Sperton is encouraged to take ownership, share ideas, and challenge existing ways of working to make our solutions even better.
Even though we operate globally, our approach is personal. We take pride in creating a supportive and inclusive environment where people feel heard, respected, and motivated to grow — both professionally and personally.
United States
·
Onsite
Shape the future of an AI startup as its Founding Design Engineer — craft the product, brand, and design system while building polished experiences directly in code.
Loading application form