About Citizen
Citizen is building the world's largest real-time safety network.
Every day, millions of people rely on Citizen to understand what's happening around them and make better decisions in moments that matter. We're building products that help people navigate uncertainty, respond to emergencies, and stay connected to the world around them in real time.
We're looking for a Product Design Engineer to help define what comes next.
This role sits at the intersection of product design, engineering, and entrepreneurship. You'll work on some of Citizen's most important experiences—from alerts and live video to entirely new AI-powered safety products—helping transform ideas into products people trust and depend on.
We're looking for someone who can identify opportunities, design experiences, build working products, and influence the direction of what gets built next.
Someone who sees ambiguity as an opportunity rather than a problem.
Someone who would rather build a prototype than create a presentation.
Founding designers, startup builders, solo creators, design engineers, and product-minded technologists are especially encouraged to apply.
What You'll DoIdentify opportunities that create meaningful value for Citizen users
Design and prototype new product experiences from concept to execution
Work on core Citizen experiences including alerts, live video, maps, AI-powered features, and real-time safety workflows
Explore multiple product directions quickly through experimentation and rapid prototyping
Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Data, Operations, and Leadership
Design systems, interactions, workflows, and behaviors—not just interfaces
Use AI to accelerate exploration, iteration, research, and product development
Help shape the future of personal safety technology
You might be:
A product designer who learned to build
A design engineer with exceptional product instincts
A founding designer from an early-stage startup
A founder who loves building products
A creative technologist who doesn't fit neatly into traditional roles
What matters most is your ability to turn ideas into products people use and value.
Strong SignalsExperience building products from 0→1
Exceptional product judgment and user empathy
Strong visual and interaction design skills
Ability to build functional prototypes that feel like real products
Comfort working across product strategy, design, and implementation
Curiosity about AI and emerging tools
A bias toward action and experimentation
Clear thinking and strong written communication
Within your first few months, you'll help answer questions like:
How should AI help people stay safer in the real world?
How can we make critical information more useful and actionable?
What entirely new products should Citizen build next?
How can we prototype and validate ideas in days instead of months?
You'll be expected to contribute not just solutions, but direction.
What We ValueWe care less about titles and credentials and more about evidence.
Show us products you've launched.
Show us systems you've created.
Show us experiments you've run.
Show us businesses, side projects, or tools you've built.
Show us examples where you identified the opportunity—not just executed someone else's roadmap.
We're especially interested in people who have repeatedly stepped into ambiguity and created clarity through building.
How to ApplyAlong with your portfolio, answer these four questions:
What's something you've built that nobody asked you to build?
Why did you believe it was worth building?
What did you learn after people started using it?
How has AI changed the way you design or build products?
We care deeply about visual craft, product thinking, and execution. Show us work that demonstrates how you think, how you design, and how you bring ideas to life. We're interested in the decisions behind the work as much as the final outcome.
Salary Range
This role offers a base salary of $155,000–$215,000 per year, plus equity.
Compensation & Benefits
We offer competitive salary, equity, and a full benefits package, including:
At least one fully employer-sponsored medical plan option
Dental and vision coverage, with a small employee contribution
Unlimited PTO
Up to 14 weeks paid parental leave (for all parents)
Monthly tech stipend
Free mental health support
Hybrid work environment + catered lunches (NYC HQ)
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Citizen
Citizen is an equal opportunity employer. We’re building a team that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve — across race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, and background.
We know that diverse teams make better decisions and build more effective products. If you don’t meet every listed qualification, we still encourage you to apply. Skills, potential, and lived experience matter.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience in product design, interaction design, creative technology, or similar hybrid roles
- Strong portfolio demonstrating high-quality product thinking, interaction design, and systems thinking
- Comfortable prototyping in code or modern prototyping tools
- Fluency in tools such as Figma, Framer, Cursor, Protopie, Rive, v0, Claude, or similar
- Experience collaborating closely with Product and Engineering teams from concept through implementation
- Strong communication and storytelling skills around product and UX decisions
What We Do
Citizen is a free app that keeps you and your loved ones safe. Using our unique technology, 911 alerts are made available to the public and accompanied by live stories, real-time updates, and user-generated content to provide you with the information you need to protect yourself and your loved ones.
Why Work With Us
In defining mobile personal safety as a category, we measure our success in the number of lives we impact. We are building proprietary hardware and software in order to crack open the 911 system, which until now was closed to the public. People have used Citizen alerts to evacuate burning buildings and reunite abducted children with their families.
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