<p><strong>Role: Founding Designer </strong></p><p><strong>Location: New York or Washington, DC</strong></p><p><strong>Comp: $180K-$220K + Equity</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>About the Company</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>A Defense Tech client is hiring a Founding Designer to own the design language and ship production UI for an agentic-AI platform that serves both non‑technical operators and advanced technical builders.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><strong>About the Role</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>The role pairs high-fidelity visual craft with hands‑on implementation in React and TypeScript and prioritizes accessible, legible interfaces for dense analytical workflows.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Responsibilities</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><ul><li>Create and steward a cross-audience design system and brand architecture that covers tokens, themes, light/dark parity, and shared component primitives, so operator and builder surfaces feel like one platform.</li><li>Prototype and deliver novel AI interaction patterns such as streaming output, tool-call visualizations, citation and confidence surfacing, and agent‑to‑human handoffs.</li><li>Translate product intent into production React and TypeScript, carrying sketches through to shipped features while preserving design fidelity.</li><li>Design and maintain clear information hierarchies for dense analytical surfaces (knowledge graphs, evaluation dashboards, workflow visualizations) so important work is revealed rather than hidden.</li><li>Treat accessibility and inclusive design (WCAG) as a baseline of the system rather than a later cleanup.</li></ul><p><br></p><p> </p><p><strong>Qualifications</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><ul><li>Portfolio showing shipped production work where the candidate owned visual and technical execution.</li><li>Hands‑on experience implementing and maintaining design tokens, theming, and component libraries in React + TypeScript.</li><li>Proven ability to design information hierarchy for complex, dense UIs.</li><li>U.S. citizenship and clearance eligibility.</li><li>Based in the National Capital Region (NCR) or New York City.</li></ul><p><br></p><p> </p><p><strong>Required Skills</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><ul><li>A designer‑engineer who lives at the intersection of visual design and front‑end code, with a portfolio demonstrating both visual expression and technical execution.</li><li>Fluent across the design‑to‑code spectrum and experienced managing tokens, themes, and shared component primitives in a production React and TypeScript codebase.</li><li>Experienced in shaping legibility in dense analytical domains (intelligence, financial, scientific, or developer‑facing products).</li><li>Comfortable prototyping and shipping AI/LLM interface patterns (streaming displays, tool-call visualization, confidence/citation surfacing) and using AI-assisted prototyping where it accelerates delivery.</li><li>Values accessibility and inclusive design as foundational.</li></ul><p><br></p><p> </p><p><strong>Preferred Skills</strong></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><ul><li>Prior work on AI and LLM interfaces: streaming output, tool-call visualization, citation surfacing, confidence indicators.</li><li>Track record of using AI‑assisted tooling to close the gap between high‑fidelity design and production code.</li><li>Experience collaborating with technical teams in high‑consequence or regulated environments.</li></ul><p></p>
