Design Director (Full-time - Hybrid)

Description

• Client also offers 100% coverage of employee premiums for medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, daily DoorDash lunch credits, gym membership, and 401k matching.
• Notes- 5 - 10 years of experience in product/UX design with some leadership experience
• Designed visually complex products with large surface areas / net-new UI
• Has managed or mentored a design team
• Hands-on IC craft - comfortable designing directly in Figma, giving detailed feedback
• Startup or high-ownership / multi-priority team experience (nice-to-have; larger-company fine if the team carried a lot of ownership)

Hard skills

• Figma
• Strong portfolio showing end-to-end product design work

Required

• Portfolio demonstrating end-to-end product design- Portfolio link
• Able to work hybrid in New York office (4 days a week in person, Wednesday wfh)

About this role

What we're looking for?

• We need a design leader with 5-8+ years of experience in product/UX design who has led or mentored design teams and can operate as both a strategic leader and hands-on IC. You should be comfortable working in a fast-paced startup environment with complex, visually rich products and have a track record of improving design systems and shipping high-quality user experiences. Bonus points if you have experience with EdTech, AI-powered products, or platforms with large visual surface areas.

What you'll do:

• Define and drive the overall design vision and strategy for Client's AI-powered K 12 learning platform
• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of designers while jumping in hands-on to give detailed feedback and design in Figma yourself
• Own and improve Client's design system to ensure consistency and scalability across a complex, multi-surface product
• Partner closely with co-founders, Product, and Engineering to shape solutions and prioritize design work across the product roadmap
• Oversee design research and usability testing programs to inform data-driven product decisions
• Balance high-level strategic leadership with direct contribution to critical design projects - this is not a purely managerial role
• 5 - 10 years of experience in product/UX design with some leadership experience

Equity

• Meaningful equity package (stock options) in a Series A startup that has raised $22.5M from top-tier investors including New Enterprise Associates and AI Fund. Client launched a major new product line in March 2025 and is growing rapidly, offering significant upside potential.
• Visa sponsorship not available
• Visa sponsorship is not available for this role. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Hybrid work policy

• Hybrid in New York City office - 4 days in-office (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) with Wednesdays work from home. Office is a 16,000 sq ft former WeWork space that holds ~40 people, pet-friendly with great amenities.
• Full-time position
• Location - New York, NY
• Tech stack - Figma, Design Systems, Prototyping Tools, User Research Tools, Usability Testing

About Client

• Client is the first and only fully interactive, end-to-end AI operating system that replaces the entire K 12 teaching and learning tech stack.We unite curriculum, lesson planning, grading, feedback, tutoring, translation, analytics, and student support in one simple system built for K 12 education. Unlike other AI assistants, Client does not sit on top of classroom tools. It replaces them with something better.
• Team size - 75 employees
• Founded - 2022
• Company locations - Palo Alto, California, United States

About the team

• Client is a ~75-person, Series A company that moves fast and cares deeply about its mission to transform K 12 education through AI. The team is led by passionate co-founders who are deeply involved in product and design decisions, creating an environment where every team member's work has visible, meaningful impact.
• What it's like to work here:
• Mission-driven culture: The team is upfront that this isn't a clock-in, clock-out environment. They hire people who genuinely care about improving educational outcomes for students and are willing to put in the work to make it happen.
• High ownership, high impact: Team members own entire problem domains and work cross-functionally across engineering, product, and design. You'll have direct access to co-founders and leadership.
• Fast-paced and demanding: Client launched a new product line on March 3rd and is actively expanding into international markets. The pace is intense - you'll juggle multiple complex projects, pivot quickly, and ship at high velocity.
• Collaborative and in-person: The team works out of a spacious 16,000 sq ft former WeWork office in New York City, in-office four days a week (Wednesdays work from home). The office is pet-friendly - people bring their dogs - and has great amenities with plenty of space for a team of ~40 in New York.
• Strong technical foundation: The engineering team is strong and technical, and the company values people who can collaborate credibly across disciplines - whether that's frontend UX, backend systems, or AI/ML components.

Tech stack

• Figma, Design Systems, Prototyping Tools, User Research Tools, Usability Testing

The product

• Client is the first and only fully interactive, end-to-end AI operating system that replaces the entire K 12 teaching and learning tech stack. Rather than sitting on top of existing classroom tools like other AI assistants, Client replaces them with something better - uniting curriculum, lesson planning, grading, feedback, tutoring, translation, analytics, and student support in one simple system.

  Client's platform consists of three core pillars:

  Content Creation Tools:

  • Teachers can create lessons, assessments, and full courses directly in Client, assign them to students, and grade them using AI - all within a single platform.
  • Students interact with the tool directly as well.
  • Multi-Tiered Support System (MTSS): As students interact with the platform, Client captures student data and insights, providing them to administrators and teachers so they can meet every student where they're at with personalized support.
  • AI-Native LMS: A full learning management system built from the ground up with AI at its core. Client is actively partnering with a large country in Latin America where it serves as their sole AI edtech tool.

  Originally founded as a computer science curriculum provider - enabling any teacher (math, gym, or otherwise) to teach CS immediately - Client has expanded significantly into a comprehensive AI operating system for all of K 12 education. The product is highly visual with large surface areas and complex UI, and much of what the team designs is net new with no existing design paradigm to follow.

Interview

• Hiring Manager Screen (45 minutes)
• Design Assessment (1 hour)
• Final Panel (On-site) (1 hour)
• Offer