Product Design Lead

Introduction

We value candidates who have significant experience with managing complexity, working independently, and are motivated by hard problems.

What We Offer

• The ability to have real impact on mission-critical workflows

• The chance to use state-of-the-art tech to solve novel problems with mission partners

• The opportunity to define your role through time as we grow

• Competitive salary and equity upside with annual merit refreshes based on impact

At ConductorAI, we are moving fast to build the future of our product, and we need a hybrid design-technical leader who can keep up, scale our output, and reinvent how product design interfaces with engineering. We are looking for a highly technical Product Designer to take ownership of our user experience, eliminate design bottlenecks, and build AI-native, code-ready design processes.

What You’ll Do

• Build an AI-Native Design System: Build a scalable, React-based component-driven design system that engineers can and will use by default.

  • Ensure the design system is directly consumable by AI tools (like Claude Code and Codex) rather than being siloed in Figma.

• Empower Engineering: Proactively educate the engineering team by showing them how to leverage the design system to make good, independent UI/UX choices.

  • Introduce and lead rapid prototyping techniques, to quickly gather feedback on early feature ideas before heavy engineering begins.

  • Help review meaningful frontend changes for design concerns.

• Own the Design Process: Establish a new, scalable design process that matches our fast pace and takes design out of the bottleneck.

  • Position product design as a proactive product owner that iterates on the platform without requiring direct hand-holding.

  • Establish tight feedback loops with customer strategists and end-users to inform product direction and usability improvements.

Requirements

• 3–5+ years of experience designing complex digital products, with a portfolio showing real shipped work, clear problem framing, and strong visual craft.

• Design & Technical Hybrid: You have a strong grasp of user experience principles and some frontend skills, specifically in React. You aren't afraid to open a PR, tweak TSX/CSS, or collaborate at a technical level with engineers.

• Interaction Design & IA Skills: You can untangle dense, stateful workflows and make them feel obvious and intuitive.

• Visual & Systems Design Instincts: You have a keen eye for typography, spacing, hierarchy, and motion that make a product feel cohesive.

• Cross-Functional Partner: You operate as a true partner to engineering and product, not a downstream service.

• Bias for Action & Autonomy: You spot design debt and fix it systematically without waiting for permission. You know how to unblock others by creating scalable systems rather than hoarding design knowledge.

• Design Tooling: Proficiency in Figma and comfort moving seamlessly between rapid exploration and high-fidelity, polished work.

• Clear Communicator: You can articulate design decisions clearly across audiences, including customers, engineers, and operational stakeholders alike.

• Eligible for Top Secret Security Clearance - you're a US citizen (not just green card) and would be comfortable going through the security clearance process (see more information and disqualifiers here)

Desired Qualifications

• AI Tool Fluency: Experience with AI-enabled prototyping and using tools like Claude to multiply your output (e.g., translating code to canvas or setting up AI-friendly UI components).

• Complex Domains: Experience designing tools for logistics, operations, defense, healthcare, or other dense, operational sectors.

• Startup DNA: Experience working in fast-paced environments with evolving requirements and ambitious, mission-driven goals.

• Security Clearance - preference for cleared individuals