The Role
The Sr. Founding Product Designer will lead the product design lifecycle, shape user interactions with AI voice agents, and build the design system while collaborating with engineers and founders in a high-ownership role.
Summary Generated by Built In
Sr. Founding Product Designer | San Francisco Bay Area | In office | Full-time
Product Designer | Voice AI Startup
About the Company
Our client is a fast-growing Y Combinator-backed Voice AI startup reimagining the modern contact center from first principles. Backed by leading investors and scaling at an exceptional pace — $36M ARR with a team of just 20 people — they're building the infrastructure that powers real-time AI voice agents for thousands of companies across sales, support, and logistics. Recognized as a top 50 AI app and one of the fastest-growing software vendors of 2025, this is a team that moves fast and builds things that matter.
The Role
As a Founding Senior Product Designer, you'll own the end-to-end product design experience for a platform where every interaction happens in real time, under pressure, with real users. You'll work directly with founders, engineers, and customers to shape features from first principles — not just polish UI after decisions are made. This is a high-ownership role with genuine influence over product direction, UX quality, and design standards.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the full product design lifecycle — from early concepts and PRDs through to polished, shipped features used by customers in high-stakes, real-time environments
- Shape how users interact with AI voice agents, translating complex technical workflows into clear, intuitive experiences
- Partner directly with engineers and founders to define, refine, and ship features, ensuring design quality is preserved all the way to production
- Conduct customer interviews and translate real user pain points into thoughtful, effective design solutions
- Proactively identify friction, inconsistencies, and opportunities across the product and drive improvements from idea to launch
- Build and evolve the company's design system, setting standards for consistency and scalability as the product and team grow
- Influence product direction through strong opinions, clear rationale, and taste-driven decisions
Requirements
- 5+ years of product design experience on shipped products
- Strong user-centered design background — HCI, design, or equivalent
- Excellent product taste with a sharp sense of usability, visual hierarchy, and clarity
- Detail-oriented with a high bar for polish and consistency
- Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, ambiguous startup environment
- Ownership mindset — you prefer end-to-end problem ownership over a narrow design scope
- Bonus: Experience designing developer-facing or technical products
Compensation & Benefits
- Salary: $180K – $230K
- Equity: Offered
- Schedule: Full-time, 70 hrs/week (50 onsite + 20 remote, flexible hours)
- Location: Redwood City, CA
- 100% medical, dental, vision coverage
- Unlimited meals and snacks
- Gym, cellphone, internet and commute reimbursement
- Visa sponsorship available (H1B, TN, L-1, E-3, F-1, O-1)
Interview Process
- Recruiter intro call (15 min)
- Portfolio walkthrough and design decision discussion (30 min)
- Live UX question or brief design exercise — candidate's choice (45 min)
- Onsite (3 hours): live Figma design exercise + user understanding deep dive
The base pay range for this role is $180,000 – $230,000 per year.
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The Company
What We Do
Syndesus builds engineering teams in Canada for US-based VC-backed startups, offering Employer of Record (PEO) services for remote employment and assisting with cross-border hiring and immigration issues.
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