Head of Design

911 is the backbone of American public safety…but, for too long, the professionals that dedicate their lives to answering our calls have been let down by the technology that serves them. Our mission is to change that. 

We aim to ensure that every emergency receives a perfect response; a bold vision requires bold action from our team, working hand-in-hand with the professionals we serve. 

Since the public launch of our first public safety product in the fall of 2021, our technology has helped streamline millions of 911 calls in communities around the country. We’ve revolutionized what’s possible in emergency response by applying cutting-edge AI to the most critical challenges facing first responders. Our partners span 49 states and collectively protect more than 90 million people.

Backed by more than $130 million in funding led from investors like General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, and First Round Capital, we're scaling rapidly to become a core component of emergency calls nationwide, driving the future of emergency response toward a safer, more agile system.

At Prepared, you’re not simply part of a team — you’re a key force in a mission that truly matters. Your contributions here will shape the future of emergency services, playing a vital role in creating a safer, more connected world.

As Head of Design at Prepared, you will guide and grow a multidisciplinary team working across product design, visual design, and user experience. This is a player-coach role: you’ll lead the team while remaining hands-on in the work. Your leadership will shape how we deliver thoughtful, intuitive, and effective design—both in our platform and in our public presence. You’ll help embed design thinking into how we work as a company, building systems and practices that support fast, high-quality execution. You’ll also stay closely connected to our mission and the frontline users we serve in public safety.

You’ll work in close partnership with Product and Engineering to shape strategy, influence product development, and ensure our products are coherent, usable, and trusted. You’ll also steward our visual identity—from marketing to in-product experiences—ensuring that Prepared reflects clarity, urgency, and care at every touchpoint.

• Set and communicate a clear, ambitious vision for UX and interaction design

• Recruit, develop, and support a diverse and high-impact design team.

• Foster a culture of craft, curiosity, and continuous improvement.

• Evolve our visual identity to align with our mission, values, and the people we serve.

• Build processes that support fast iteration and high standards.

• Create and evolve systems for design review, feedback, and consistent execution.

• Partner closely with cross-functional peers to ensure seamless user experiences.

• Be willing and able to contribute hands-on to design work when needed—whether that’s shaping key product features, evolving our design system, or jumping into collaborative problem-solving.

• Collaborate with Product and Engineering leaders on roadmap and prioritization.

• Translate complex, real-time user needs into accessible, intuitive designs.

• Ensure product design and brand work together to tell a unified story across all surfaces.

• Champion a culture of data-driven design, where the user experience evolves based on insights gleaned from continuous discovery.

• Help establish Prepared as a respected and inclusive design-led organization.

• Promote psychological safety, thoughtful critique, and open collaboration.

• Model clear decision-making and high expectations in service of our users and mission.

• You bring 10+ years of experience across product design, with 5+ years in a senior leadership role.

• You’ve scaled and led teams through growth stages in collaborative, high-performance environments (startup or scaleup preferred).

• You have deep expertise in both product UX and visual design systems, and are confident in guiding and learning across disciplines.

• You can zoom out to define long-term vision, and zoom in to critique a button interaction or type scale.

• You’re comfortable rolling up your sleeves to contribute hands-on when necessary, helping move high-priority work forward or unblocking the team.

• You move quickly, make decisions with incomplete data, and ship with quality and urgency.

• You understand how to balance user needs and business impact—your work reflects both.

• You’ve built design teams, systems, and rituals from the ground up.

• You’re passionate about mentoring and sponsoring designers, elevating craft, and helping shape the design organization’s identity.

• You know how to foster cross-functional trust, alignment, and healthy tension.

• You’re drawn to our mission and want your work to have real-world, life-saving impact.

• You enjoy designing for complex, high-stakes environments and are energized by the challenge of bringing clarity where it matters most.

• You want to work with a team that values excellence, humility, ownership, and continuous learning.

• Experience designing tools for critical or essential services (e.g., healthcare, public safety, logistics).

• Familiarity with the unique constraints of designing for high-stakes, real-time users (e.g., latency, accessibility, decision-making under stress).

• Experience building and operationalizing inclusive, scalable, and accessible design systems.

• Mastery of Figma and familiarity with design tokens and component libraries for developer collaboration.

• Experience partnering with brand design to produce a cohesive visual identity within our product as well as our external-facing collateral

The base compensation for this role is approximately $220,000 - 240,000 per year. You are also eligible for employee benefits, company equity grants, participation in Prepared’s unlimited vacation program.

🌎 Remote-First Culture
🩺 Medical, Dental, and Vision Benefits
💸 401k + Free Financial Advisors with Betterment
📱Monthly Cell Phone Stipend
🏖️ Unlimited Time Off + 15 Observed Holidays
🚼 12 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave (birthing + non-birthing parents)
🚨 Visit a PSAP (911 Center)
🏢 WeWork Membership for All Employees
✈️ Annual Company Offsite
🔮 AI Tools like ChatGPT + NotionAI
🏠 $500 Work from Home Budget
📚$350 Annual L&D Stipend

Want to learn more about Prepared? Check out the links below.

• General Catalyst | Our Investment in Prepared: Bringing AI to the Frontlines of Public Safety

• Anoka County 911 center testing AI to screen nonemergency calls, ease workload

• NBC Today Show | 911 callers can now share video of emergencies with dispatchers

At Prepared, we are committed to building a safer and more connected world, and we believe that fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion is essential to achieving this mission. We are a proud equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. We actively seek to create an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives are valued and everyone has the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to our mission of improving public safety and emergency response for all communities.

Prepared is not sponsoring visas at this time.