Founding Design Engineer
Built as a native vibe coding platform; role designs AI-native workflows and interfaces.
About the Role
Founding Design Engineer to own the full visual and interactive experience of Jinba's AI-native workflow platform. Build the design system, craft motion and interaction, and ship production frontend code in close collaboration with engineering as the first dedicated design hire.
Job Description
Role
A founding design engineer responsible for the end-to-end visual and interactive experience of Jinba’s platform. You will build the design system from the ground up, create motion that clarifies complex workflows, and ship production-ready frontend code alongside engineering.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and build Jinba’s design system: components, tokens, patterns, and documentation
- Own UI/UX for core product surfaces from concept through implementation
- Create motion design that guides users through workflow creation and execution
- Write clean, maintainable frontend code and ship features with engineering
- Establish design processes and standards as the first dedicated design hire
Requirements
Design Skills
- Strong product design sense with portfolio showing end-to-end ownership
- Experience building or significantly contributing to a design system
- Motion design ability: understanding of timing, easing, and animation to communicate state
Technical Ability
- Proficient in React and TypeScript and able to ship your own designs
- Familiarity with component libraries like shadcn/ui and Radix
- Knowledge of design tokens, CSS architecture, and scalable frontend patterns
Product Context
- Experience with developer tools, no-code platforms, or workflow/automation products
- Comfortable designing complex interfaces: canvas editors, drag-and-drop builders, multi-step flows
- Ability to simplify dense functionality without losing capability
Mindset / Signals
- Generalist who owns broad surfaces rather than a single component
- Opinionated but collaborative with strong taste and articulation
- Early-stage readiness and excitement for ambiguity
- Preferred background: founding designer or design engineer at early-stage startups; experience at companies like Figma, Linear, Notion, Retool, or Vercel is a strong signal
Company / Product Context
Jinba builds automated enterprise workflows using plain English and is described as a native vibe coding platform. The team is international (SF and Tokyo) and is YC W26 backed, growing with enterprise contracts.
Compensation
- Compensation Range: $100,000 - $250,000