The Sr. Founding Product Designer will lead the product design lifecycle, shape user interactions with AI voice agents, and build the design system while collaborating with engineers and founders in a high-ownership role.
Sr. Founding Product Designer | San Francisco Bay Area | In office | Full-time
Product Designer | Voice AI Startup
About the Company
Our client is a fast-growing Y Combinator-backed Voice AI startup reimagining the modern contact center from first principles. Backed by leading investors and scaling at an exceptional pace — $36M ARR with a team of just 20 people — they're building the infrastructure that powers real-time AI voice agents for thousands of companies across sales, support, and logistics. Recognized as a top 50 AI app and one of the fastest-growing software vendors of 2025, this is a team that moves fast and builds things that matter.
The Role
As a Founding Senior Product Designer, you'll own the end-to-end product design experience for a platform where every interaction happens in real time, under pressure, with real users. You'll work directly with founders, engineers, and customers to shape features from first principles — not just polish UI after decisions are made. This is a high-ownership role with genuine influence over product direction, UX quality, and design standards.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the full product design lifecycle — from early concepts and PRDs through to polished, shipped features used by customers in high-stakes, real-time environments
- Shape how users interact with AI voice agents, translating complex technical workflows into clear, intuitive experiences
- Partner directly with engineers and founders to define, refine, and ship features, ensuring design quality is preserved all the way to production
- Conduct customer interviews and translate real user pain points into thoughtful, effective design solutions
- Proactively identify friction, inconsistencies, and opportunities across the product and drive improvements from idea to launch
- Build and evolve the company's design system, setting standards for consistency and scalability as the product and team grow
- Influence product direction through strong opinions, clear rationale, and taste-driven decisions
Requirements
- 5+ years of product design experience on shipped products
- Strong user-centered design background — HCI, design, or equivalent
- Excellent product taste with a sharp sense of usability, visual hierarchy, and clarity
- Detail-oriented with a high bar for polish and consistency
- Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, ambiguous startup environment
- Ownership mindset — you prefer end-to-end problem ownership over a narrow design scope
- Bonus: Experience designing developer-facing or technical products
Compensation & Benefits
- Salary: $180K – $230K
- Equity: Offered
- Schedule: Full-time, 70 hrs/week (50 onsite + 20 remote, flexible hours)
- Location: Redwood City, CA
- 100% medical, dental, vision coverage
- Unlimited meals and snacks
- Gym, cellphone, internet and commute reimbursement
- Visa sponsorship available (H1B, TN, L-1, E-3, F-1, O-1)
Interview Process
- Recruiter intro call (15 min)
- Portfolio walkthrough and design decision discussion (30 min)
- Live UX question or brief design exercise — candidate's choice (45 min)
- Onsite (3 hours): live Figma design exercise + user understanding deep dive
The base pay range for this role is $180,000 – $230,000 per year.
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