Head of Design

Our mission is to build the next generation of AI: ubiquitous, interactive intelligence that runs wherever you are. Today, not even the best models can continuously process and reason over a year-long stream of audio, video and text—1B text tokens, 10B audio tokens and 1T video tokens—let alone do this on-device.

We're pioneering the model architectures that will make this possible. Our founding team met as PhDs at the Stanford AI Lab, where we invented State Space Models or SSMs, a new primitive for training efficient, large-scale foundation models. Our team combines deep expertise in model innovation and systems engineering paired with a design-minded product engineering team to build and ship cutting edge models and experiences.

We're funded by leading investors at Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with Factory, Conviction, A Star, General Catalyst, SV Angel, Databricks and others. We're fortunate to have the support of many amazing advisors, and 90+ angels across many industries, including the world's foremost experts in AI.

About the Role

Cartesia is looking for a Head of Product Design to shape how developers experience our cutting-edge AI voice and sound generation technology. This is a hands-on management role where you'll own our getting started experience end-to-end while building design cohesiveness across all product surfaces. You'll be the design voice at the table, driving our product strategy through deep competitive analysis and establishing a world-class design culture from the ground up.

Your Impact

• Own the complete getting started experience, from first discovery to successful API integration, ensuring every touchpoint feels intuitive and drives activation

• Establish and maintain design systems that create visual and interaction consistency across our developer dashboard, API interfaces, documentation, and web properties

• Conduct regular competitive analyses of AI infrastructure and developer tool companies, surfacing product gaps and opportunities to inform our roadmap

• Push the bar on craft and quality across every pixel and interaction, transforming fragmented experiences into a unified product narrative

• Manage a small team of designers with hands-on coaching, career development, and recruiting as we scale

• Partner closely with engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to ship impactful features that balance technical capabilities with user needs

• Translate complex technical concepts into intuitive experiences designed specifically for developer audiences

• Advocate for design perspective in product strategy discussions and help shape what we build next

• Foster a culture of high craft, rapid iteration, and user empathy that becomes foundational to how Cartesia operates

• Drive measurable improvements in how Cartesia shows up, from time-to-value metrics to the design culture we're known for

What You Bring

• First-line management experience leading designers while maintaining a strong IC practice

• Exceptional design sense with a portfolio demonstrating craft across visual design, interaction design, and systems thinking

• Comfort designing for technical audiences—APIs, developer tools, and B2B products (not purely consumer-focused)

• Deep fluency with design tools and ability to move quickly from concept to high-fidelity execution

• Experience working alongside world-class designers at companies known for design excellence

• Ability to thrive in ambiguity, ship iteratively, and wear multiple hats in a startup environment

Nice to Have

• Experience at leading tech companies, combined with startup experience

• Background designing developer experiences

• Technical depth or coding experience that enables stronger collaboration with engineers

• Experience in the AI/ML product space or adjacent technical infrastructure products

• Track record of establishing design culture and processes at early-stage companies

What We Offer

🍽 Lunch, dinner and snacks at the office

🏥 Fully covered medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees

🏦 401(k)

✈️ Relocation and immigration support

🦖 Your own personal Yoshi

🏢 We’re an in-person team based out of San Francisco. We love being in the office, hanging out together, and learning from each other every day.

🚢 We ship fast. All of our work is novel and cutting edge, and execution speed is paramount. We have a high bar, and we don’t sacrifice quality or design along the way.

🤝 We support each other. We have an open & inclusive culture that’s focused on giving everyone the resources they need to succeed.