Design Engineering

Job Title: Design Engineer

Location: NYC (On-site, 5 days a week)

About Highlight AI

Highlight AI is a cutting-edge desktop assistant designed to enhance productivity by seamlessly integrating with your workflow. We empower users to interact with any application using text and voice commands, eliminating the need to switch between tools. After raising a seed round from investors like General Catalyst, Valor Equity, SV Angel, and Conviction Fund, we’re now in hypergrowth mode and expanding our team.

The Role

We're looking for a thoughtful, hands-on Product Designer to join our team at Highlight AI and help shape the future of intelligent desktop experiences. In this role, you'll help shape our design system and take ownership of key features across our cross-platform assistant, designing elegant, intuitive interfaces that make powerful AI capabilities feel natural and accessible.

Note: this is an on-site role, requiring five days a week in our NYC headquarters.

Job Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end design process—from concept to production—for core product experiences across our desktop platform (macOS + Windows).

• Design intuitive, elegant interfaces that allow users to harness AI with minimal friction.

• Conduct user research, gather feedback, and iterate quickly.

• Help evolve our design system and visual language to support a scalable, high-performance desktop experience.

• Push the boundaries of desktop UI/UX by exploring voice, context-aware design, and real-time interactions.

Profile

We’re looking for someone who wants to help define the future of human-computer interaction. We punch above our weight so we value extreme ownership, accountability, and proactiveness. You might be a good fit if you have:

• 3–6+ years of experience designing software products, preferably in productivity, AI, or developer tools (added bonus if you have experience designing for native desktop apps or integrating AI into UI/UX).

• Solid experience with frontend fundamentals and frameworks (Next.js, React).

• Strong portfolio showcasing product thinking and user-centered design across multiple platforms – we appreciate an eye for detail and passion for building beautiful, functional interfaces.

• Fluency in design tools like Figma (added bonus if you’ve worked with motion design or prototyping tools) – we’re looking for someone who can hit the ground running day one.

• Comfortable working in fast-paced, ambiguous startup environments with tight feedback loops – we ship features fast, so we need someone who can keep up.

• Ownership mentality (no task is too small for you) – it’s all hands on deck here and we need everyone rowing the boat.

• Excellent communication skills and a collaborative mindset – we’re extremely lean so we’re looking for a team player who works well with others.

• Type-A tendencies – maybe you’re extremely detail-oriented. Or maybe you take pride in shipping high-quality products. Whatever it is you do, you give it your all.

• Must be based in or willing to relocate to NYC – although we’re flexible with days off & schedules, we have a 100% in-office culture during the week.

And even if you don’t fall neatly into any of these buckets, we’re looking for scrappy and motivated self-starters above all. Hustle is expected, grit is required.

Perks

• Competitive salary and generous equity package

• Health, dental, and vision insurance

• Flexible PTO and parental leave

• Paid team lunches during the week

• Relocation package