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Founding Design Engineer

Own product design and frontend implementation across web, desktop, and mobile, taking features from concept through pixel-perfect production code. The role requires exceptional product taste, strong interaction-design craft, and the ability to ship independently while shaping Circleback’s design system and product direction.

About the job

Responsibilities

  • Own the design and frontend implementation of features across web (React, Next.js), desktop (Electron, Swift), and mobile (React Native).
  • Understand customer problems and create elegant solutions for dense conversational information.
  • Craft interactions, animations, and transitions.
  • Build and evolve the design system, including components, patterns, and tokens.
  • Refine loading, empty, and error states; keyboard shortcuts; hover treatments; and drag interactions.
  • Iterate on onboarding, activation, and education experiments.
  • Collaborate directly with engineers and founders on product direction.
  • Prototype ideas in code.
  • Potentially help establish and lead the design function as the company grows.

Requirements

  • Experience as a designer who codes or an engineer with exceptional product design judgment.
  • Ability to take ideas from sketch to shipped product independently.
  • Portfolio or shipped work demonstrating this capability.
  • Strong attention to craft, including typography, color, spacing, animation, and interaction details.
  • Fast, pragmatic approach to shipping high-quality software.
  • Ability to balance powerful functionality with simplicity and consider diverse customer perspectives.
  • Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor or Claude Code.

Compensation and Benefits

  • $170,000–$280,000 salary.
  • Equity.
  • Free lunch and dinners.
  • Flexible health coverage.
  • 401(k) matching.

Skills

React, Next.js, Electron, Swift, React Native, Figma, Cursor, Claude Code, Design Systems, TypeScript

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