Founding Product Designer
Founding Product Designer owns product coherence, defines shared interaction patterns, design systems, and core government workflows for a scaling AI platform serving municipalities. Partners with PM and engineering using AI-native tools like Figma, Lovable, and Cursor; requires 5+ years in complex SaaS design.
About the job
What you'll do
- Own system-level product coherence across GovWell by defining shared interaction patterns, reference workflows, terminology, and design systems that prevent divergence as teams ship in parallel.
- Prototype and iterate rapidly using AI-native tools such as Lovable, Figma AI, and Cursor-assisted workflows to explore ideas, test workflows, and unblock engineering.
- Support 0→1 incubation work, especially AI-powered products, by providing rapid feedback, prototypes, and direction while keeping experimentation lightweight.
- Partner closely with Product Management on roadmap sequencing and UX strategy to ensure cross-team initiatives fit together into a cohesive experience.
- Design core government workflows end-to-end, deeply understanding how staff operate in areas like permitting, inspections, licensing, planning, and payments, and simplifying the highest-frequency paths.
- Embed directly with engineers early in shaping, providing fast, high-leverage design direction that enables teams to ship quickly without heavy process or downstream redesign.
- Establish lightweight but scalable design foundations, including components, patterns, and information architecture, without overbuilding systems or ceremony.
- Raise the quality bar over time as the product matures, removing complexity, improving usability, and reinforcing a unified platform experience.
- Ensure GovWell's product reflects the realities of operational government work: high volume, high stakes, and low tolerance for confusion.
Who you are
- 5+ years designing complex, workflow-heavy SaaS products, with experience owning end-to-end flows across interconnected surfaces rather than isolated screens.
- Proven ability to design and ship quickly alongside empowered engineers, shaping solutions early, iterating in tight loops, and creating design foundations that scale across teams.
- Strong systems-level designer with a track record of defining reusable interaction patterns, workflow primitives, and design systems that prevent fragmentation as products scale.
- Highly fluent in AI-native design and prototyping workflows; actively uses modern AI tools to explore ideas quickly, validate workflows, and unblock engineering with lightweight design assets.
- Strong product judgment and bias toward simplicity, consistently identifying the highest-leverage usability and coherence problems and reducing complexity in high-stakes operational software.
- Interest or experience in govtech or public-sector workflows is a strong plus; demonstrated ability to learn complex operational domains quickly is required.
Design Tooling
- Lovable
- Cursor
- Figma
Compensation and benefits
- Competitive base salary.
- Equity / stock options.
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
- 401(k) program.
- Flexible PTO.
Skills
Figma, Lovable, Cursor, Figma Ai, Design Systems, Interaction Patterns, Prototyping, Saas Design, Workflow Design, Ux Strategy
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