Principal Designer

Tolan is an Embodied Companion — a cute AI alien you talk with naturally, like a friend. Tolans have their own personality and preferences, and over time form memories about you, your life, and your shared friendship.

We're an experienced team that previously founded Even, acquired for $300M in 2022. Tolan is backed by the designers and founders behind Instagram, Retro, Behance, Vimeo, and Notion. Our team works hard, with an emphasis on autonomy and ownership. We're building together in-person in downtown SF.

The role

We're hiring a Principal Designer to help shape the future of Tolan. You'll work in a small team to design, build, and ship features that push the boundaries of our relationship with embodied AI.

What You'll Do

• Own design projects end-to-end, from foundational product decisions to polished visual details.

• Partner closely with engineering and product to take features from concept to production.

• Set and maintain a high design bar across the full Tolan experience.

• Push the boundaries of what's possible at the frontier of embodied AI interfaces.

• Talk with real users, learn from what you ship, and iterate quickly.

Who We're Looking For

• Experienced designer. You have 5+ years of experience owning design projects end-to-end with little oversight.

• Consumer product chops. You've worked on consumer-facing products and taken them from concept to production, learned from real users, and iterated quickly.

• Autonomous collaborator. You thrive in highly autonomous and collaborative environments.

• Product-minded. You care as much about solving product problems as you do about visuals.

• Pattern breaker. You know when to follow patterns and when to break them to make something entirely new.

Compensation: $200,000-300,000 base salary + equity + benefits