Fractional Founding Designer

Department: Engineering

Location: San Francisco

Employment Type: FullTime

About the Role

This is a first designer role at an early-stage AI-powered recruitment startup — meaning you won't be executing a backlog, you'll be shaping what the product looks, feels, and behaves like from the ground up. Working fractionally at 10–20 hours per week, you'll set the design standards and systems that the entire team builds against going forward.

What You'll Do

• Define the visual and interaction language of the product, establishing a design system and documentation for engineering to build against.

• Own end-to-end design across the surfaces that matter most — from early concepts to high-fidelity mockups and prototypes.

• Partner directly with engineering and product to implement designs, navigate technical constraints, and ensure quality at handoff.

• Make product strategy and design decisions with limited information, iterating based on user feedback and qualitative research.

• Conduct or coordinate user research and usability testing to inform and validate design directions.

What We're Looking For

• 3+ years of product design experience shipping consumer or B2B products end-to-end.

• Demonstrated experience establishing design systems, standards, and documentation for cross-functional teams.

• Strong proficiency in Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD for high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes.

• Comfort making design decisions in fast-moving, ambiguous environments and iterating quickly on feedback.

• A portfolio showing shipped work with a clear problem-solving or before/after narrative.

• Experience working closely with engineering and product teams, ideally with some familiarity with HTML/CSS and design-to-code handoff.

• Prior experience in early-stage startups or fractional/part-time design engagements is a plus.

Location

Fully remote — open to candidates based in the DACH region.