founding designer

⚠️ Please read first

• This is a full-time, in-person role based in San Francisco (Presidio) - we work from the office 5 days a week.

• You must be based in the Bay Area or willing to relocate before starting.

• We require US work authorisation, but are open to O-1 visa sponsorship for truly exceptional candidates.

About Wordware

Wordware is an IDE for building AI agents using natural language.

It looks and feels like Notion, but lets you design, test, and deploy AI systems in real time - without writing code.

Our mission is to bring structure and joy to human–AI collaboration.

We’re building a generational company that empowers the next billion knowledge workers to create with AI - not by writing code, but by expressing intent.

We’re backed by Spark Capital, Felicis, and Y Combinator ($30M seed round - the largest in YC history).

We work hard, move fast, and don’t take ourselves too seriously. It’s intense, but it’s also fun - at Wordware, you’ll do the best work of your life alongside people you genuinely like.

founding designer @ wordware

tl;dr making AI development feel natural is really fucking hard. we need someone who can turn complex concepts into intuitive experiences. think notion's elegance meets vscode's power. now make it simple, and damn but simple is hard.

the actual challenge: we're building something that lets anyone orchestrate ai using plain english. but here's the thing - we're basically creating a new programming paradigm. how do you make that feel as natural as writing in notion? that's where you come in.

the bigger picture: we're not just talking to traditional developers. we're reaching the next 500 million people who will be "coding" with plain english - lawyers, designers, product managers, founders, and domain experts of all kinds. our content needs to thread an impossible needle: deep enough for engineers, accessible enough for everyone else, and compelling enough to show both groups why this matters.

what you'll actually be doing:

• designing:

  • an IDE that makes ai development feel intuitive

  • Explore Page (GitHub for AI)

  • Prosumer features

• creating a design system that can grow with us

• working directly with founders (your desk will be next to ours)

• shipping fast, maybe sometimes too fast

• building foundations for future designers (no pressure)

you should probably:

• be ok with chaos and uncertainty

• know how to explain your designs without sounding like a design blog

• think in systems, not just pretty screens

• work fast and be ok with throwing stuff away

• care about developer tools and complex interfaces (bonus points for experience in companies like Airtable, Zapier, retool and their startup earlier equivalents)

signs this is not for you:

• you need perfect processes from day one

• you get precious about your designs

• you can't handle direct feedback

• you're looking for work-life balance right now

real talk:

• we're in sf. yes, you need to be here too, dont apply if you dont have an idea how to get here.

• we work a lot, cause we are all friends

• sometimes things break or something not connected to your role is urgent. you'll help fix it

• your work will directly impact hundreds of thousands of users

• pizza and beer are essential food groups here

• we sometimes have crossbow shooting competitions
  

ps: we're backed by spark capital, felicis, and y combinator ($30mm seed — biggest out of YC round to the best of my knowledge) but we still work like a seed startup. and yes, the office will have a sauna and be 30m from the sea 🥵