Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
About the Role You'll be reporting to our Founding Designer, but the expectation for you to own the assigned scope end-to-end. This is a 60% design / 40% product role. You'll own features end-to-end ...
Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
About the Role You'll be reporting to our Founding Designer, but the expectation for you to own the assigned scope end-to-end. This is a 60% design / 40% product role. You'll own features end-to-end ...
Lead Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $211K/yr
A track record of operating semi-autonomously: ideally as a founding designer, senior IC, design lead, or similar role where the design decisions were yours to make and live with. * You can ramp fast ...
Lead Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $211K/yr
A track record of operating semi-autonomously: ideally as a founding designer, senior IC, design lead, or similar role where the design decisions were yours to make and live with. * You can ramp fast ...
Founding Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $280K/yr
We're growing revenue like crazy and looking to bring on a founding product designer to help shape the future of our product as we scale rapidly. We are very excited about the potential for AI to ...
Founding Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $280K/yr
We're growing revenue like crazy and looking to bring on a founding product designer to help shape the future of our product as we scale rapidly. We are very excited about the potential for AI to ...
Youtube Channel * Medium blog The Role We're looking for a Founding Product Designer to help shape how AI-native systems are built and used inside real enterprise operations. This is not a ...
Quick apply
Youtube Channel * Medium blog The Role We're looking for a Founding Product Designer to help shape how AI-native systems are built and used inside real enterprise operations. This is not a ...
Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
We're looking for an incredible founding Designer to help us deliver on an ambitious roadmap. * Our business model is AI-first. Ferry's bread and butter is using AI agents to call medical practices ...
Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
We're looking for an incredible founding Designer to help us deliver on an ambitious roadmap. * Our business model is AI-first. Ferry's bread and butter is using AI agents to call medical practices ...
Senior Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$175K - $200K/yr
This role will report to the Founding Product Designer. What you'll do: * Take end-to-end ownership of product design: shaping roadmap decisions, defining core experiences, and shipping at speed ...
Senior Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$175K - $200K/yr
This role will report to the Founding Product Designer. What you'll do: * Take end-to-end ownership of product design: shaping roadmap decisions, defining core experiences, and shipping at speed ...
Youtube Channel * Medium blog The Role We're looking for a Founding Product Designer to help shape how AI-native systems are built and used inside real enterprise operations. This is not a ...
Youtube Channel * Medium blog The Role We're looking for a Founding Product Designer to help shape how AI-native systems are built and used inside real enterprise operations. This is not a ...
Youtube Channel * Medium blog The Role We're looking for a Founding Product Designer to help shape how AI-native systems are built and used inside real enterprise operations. This is not a ...
Youtube Channel * Medium blog The Role We're looking for a Founding Product Designer to help shape how AI-native systems are built and used inside real enterprise operations. This is not a ...
Staff Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site +1
A background that mixes founding-designer or startup work with time at a larger, established company; agency experience is a plus BENEFITS At Oura, we care about you and your well-being. Everyone ...
Staff Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site +1
A background that mixes founding-designer or startup work with time at a larger, established company; agency experience is a plus BENEFITS At Oura, we care about you and your well-being. Everyone ...
About the Role We're looking for a Founding Product Designer to give Inferact and vLLM a distinct visual identity, sharp brand presence, and highly intuitive developer product experiences. This is a ...
About the Role We're looking for a Founding Product Designer to give Inferact and vLLM a distinct visual identity, sharp brand presence, and highly intuitive developer product experiences. This is a ...
We believe designers who've watched an operator work through a temperature excursion at 2am make ... founding team and engineers. There's no design team to inherit and no playbook waiting for you. You ...
We believe designers who've watched an operator work through a temperature excursion at 2am make ... founding team and engineers. There's no design team to inherit and no playbook waiting for you. You ...
Lead Product Designer
Santa Monica, CA · On-site +1
$211K/yr
Familiarity with college students, Gen Z, or early-career audiences * "First designer" or "founding designer" experience at a previous startup What We Offer * Competitive annual base compensation
Quick apply
Lead Product Designer
Santa Monica, CA · On-site +1
$211K/yr
Familiarity with college students, Gen Z, or early-career audiences * "First designer" or "founding designer" experience at a previous startup What We Offer * Competitive annual base compensation
Founding Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$30/hr
TL;DR: We're hiring a Founding Product Designer to turn complex, week-long consulting projects into elegant, simple experiences powered by AI. If you love rethinking products from the ground up ...
Founding Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$30/hr
TL;DR: We're hiring a Founding Product Designer to turn complex, week-long consulting projects into elegant, simple experiences powered by AI. If you love rethinking products from the ground up ...
Founding Brand Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
What You'll Do As our Founding Brand Designer , you'll own the visual expression of Resolve AI from the ground up, crafting a brand that reflects the ambition, clarity, and technical depth of what we ...
Founding Brand Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
What You'll Do As our Founding Brand Designer , you'll own the visual expression of Resolve AI from the ground up, crafting a brand that reflects the ambition, clarity, and technical depth of what we ...
Founding Brand Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$140K - $220K/yr
About the Role We're hiring a Founding Brand Designer to define what Juicebox stands for and ensure that shows up everywhere our company exists in the world. You will be responsible for building the ...
Founding Brand Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$140K - $220K/yr
About the Role We're hiring a Founding Brand Designer to define what Juicebox stands for and ensure that shows up everywhere our company exists in the world. You will be responsible for building the ...
You'll work closely with our founding designer and backend / ML teams to ship new product surfaces, workflows, and interactions at startup speed. You'll be responsible for making sure everything ...
You'll work closely with our founding designer and backend / ML teams to ship new product surfaces, workflows, and interactions at startup speed. You'll be responsible for making sure everything ...
Staff Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site +1
A background that mixes founding-designer or startup work with time at a larger, established company; agency experience is a plus BENEFITS At Ōura, we care about you and your well-being. Everyone ...
Staff Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site +1
A background that mixes founding-designer or startup work with time at a larger, established company; agency experience is a plus BENEFITS At Ōura, we care about you and your well-being. Everyone ...
Founding Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $170K/yr
Create flows, interactions, and designs for multi-surface products: desktop app, web dashboard, notifications, AI outputs, etc. * Rapidly prototype ideas ( Figma , interactive mocks) to test with ...
Founding Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$150K - $170K/yr
Create flows, interactions, and designs for multi-surface products: desktop app, web dashboard, notifications, AI outputs, etc. * Rapidly prototype ideas ( Figma , interactive mocks) to test with ...
Founding Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$210K - $250K/yr
It's like unboxing a new gadget, except you're the one designing it. You shape how it feels, how it works, and how people react when they use it. At Solidroad we're solving a big, messy, exciting ...
Founding Product Designer
San Francisco, CA · On-site
$210K - $250K/yr
It's like unboxing a new gadget, except you're the one designing it. You shape how it feels, how it works, and how people react when they use it. At Solidroad we're solving a big, messy, exciting ...
The opportunity We're hiring an experienced Founding Product Designer to lead design across Hazel end-to-end: from everyday admin workflows (notes, meetings, inbox, tasks) to Hazel's most complex ...
The opportunity We're hiring an experienced Founding Product Designer to lead design across Hazel end-to-end: from everyday admin workflows (notes, meetings, inbox, tasks) to Hazel's most complex ...
Founding Designer information
See California salary details
$21.45 is the 25th percentile. Wages below this are outliers.
$18.98 - $21.50
26% of jobs
$21.50 - $24.03
0% of jobs
$24.03 - $26.55
0% of jobs
$26.55 - $29.07
7% of jobs
The median wage is $30.51 / hr.
$29.07 - $31.60
30% of jobs
$33.30 is the 75th percentile. Wages above this are outliers.
$31.60 - $34.12
18% of jobs
$34.12 - $36.64
2% of jobs
$36.64 - $39.17
4% of jobs
$39.17 - $41.69
4% of jobs
$41.69 - $44.21
4% of jobs
$44.21 - $46.74
4% of jobs
$18
$31
$46
How much do founding designer jobs pay per hour?
As of Aug 14, 2026, the average hourly pay for founding designer in California is $31.23, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $28.46 and $35.82 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.
What is a founding designer?
Founding Designers are design professionals who join a company at its earliest stages, often as one of the first design hires or even as a co-founder. Their role goes beyond traditional design work, as they help shape the company's brand, product direction, and user experience from the ground up. Founding Designers collaborate closely with other founding team members, influence the overall vision, and often set the design culture and processes for the organization. Their impact is significant because early design decisions can shape the company's trajectory and influence its long-term success.
What is the difference between Founding Designer vs Product Designer?
| Aspect | Founding Designer | Product Designer |
|---|---|---|
| Credentials | Portfolio, design experience, startup understanding | Portfolio, design experience, user-centered design skills |
| Work Environment | Early-stage startups, founding teams | Established companies, product teams |
| Industry Usage | Common in startups and new ventures | Widespread across tech and non-tech companies |
| Search & Comparison Intent | Understanding startup roles, founding team contributions | Design responsibilities, career growth |
Founding Designers focus on establishing the visual and user experience foundation in early-stage startups, often wearing multiple hats. Product Designers typically work within established teams to refine and develop products, emphasizing user-centered design. While both roles require strong design skills, Founding Designers are more involved in shaping the company's initial design direction, whereas Product Designers focus on ongoing product development and improvement.
What skills and qualifications are needed to thrive as a founding designer?
To thrive as a Founding Designer, you need a strong foundation in visual and interaction design, a robust portfolio, and experience in early-stage product development. Proficiency with design tools like Figma, Sketch, and Adobe Creative Suite, as well as familiarity with prototyping and collaboration platforms, is essential. Exceptional communication, adaptability, and entrepreneurial thinking help you collaborate effectively with technical and business teams in a dynamic startup environment. These skills ensure you can shape the product vision, build cohesive user experiences, and drive the company's design direction from the ground up.
What are the main challenges a founding designer faces when working in an early-stage startup environment?
As a Founding Designer in an early-stage startup, you'll often work with limited resources and shifting priorities. You'll collaborate closely with founders, engineers, and sometimes directly with customers to shape both the product and the brand vision from the ground up. The role requires balancing rapid prototyping, user feedback, and long-term design strategy, often in a fast-paced and ambiguous environment. While this can be challenging, it also offers significant autonomy and the opportunity to have a major impact on the company's trajectory and culture.
What cities in California are hiring for Founding Designer jobs?
Cities in California with the most Founding Designer job openings:
Full-time
Re-posted 17 days ago
Job description
About Rox
Rox is building an AI-native revenue operating system that turns every sales rep into a top performer. Backed by Sequoia, GV, and General Catalyst ($50M raised), we've built a platform used by 35+ leading enterprise teams including OpenAI, Ramp, and MongoDB. Our "Agent Swarm" architecture transforms fragmented CRM data into intelligent, autonomous workflows that research accounts, personalize outreach, and advance pipelines-all while sellers focus on closing deals. We're a small team tackling one of software's most entrenched markets, and we're winning.
About the Design Team
You'll join a three-person multicultural design team working at the intersection of AI and enterprise software. We're building a completely new category of product. This means design doesn't just make things look good, it defines what this category becomes. Our job is simple: keep Rox radically useful and simple, even as capabilities expand. Design decisions here directly shape how thousands of salespeople work every day. We prototype fast (Figma, Windsurf/Cursor, LLMs), ship faster, and have a seat at every product decision.
About the Role
You'll be reporting to our Founding Designer, but the expectation for you to own the assigned scope end-to-end. This is a 60% design / 40% product role. You'll own features end-to-end: from researching how competitors solve similar problems, to designing in our component library, to building live prototypes that show full behavior and edge cases, to defending your decisions with engineers and product leads.
We're looking for someone who's part designer, part product thinker. You should be the kind of person who maps out competitor products for fun, builds quick prototypes to prove a point, and cares deeply about whether the thing you ship actually makes users' lives easier.
What You'll Do
Rox is defining a new category of software. The way it looks and feels isn't a detail, it's the difference between a product people tolerate and one they love. We're here to build a product our users love. This role exists to ensure Rox stays simple, useful, and beautiful as we scale.
If you want real ownership, real influence, and a chance to shape something from the ground up at a company defining the future of AI, this is one of those rare roles where your fingerprints will still be visible years from now.
Rox is building an AI-native revenue operating system that turns every sales rep into a top performer. Backed by Sequoia, GV, and General Catalyst ($50M raised), we've built a platform used by 35+ leading enterprise teams including OpenAI, Ramp, and MongoDB. Our "Agent Swarm" architecture transforms fragmented CRM data into intelligent, autonomous workflows that research accounts, personalize outreach, and advance pipelines-all while sellers focus on closing deals. We're a small team tackling one of software's most entrenched markets, and we're winning.
About the Design Team
You'll join a three-person multicultural design team working at the intersection of AI and enterprise software. We're building a completely new category of product. This means design doesn't just make things look good, it defines what this category becomes. Our job is simple: keep Rox radically useful and simple, even as capabilities expand. Design decisions here directly shape how thousands of salespeople work every day. We prototype fast (Figma, Windsurf/Cursor, LLMs), ship faster, and have a seat at every product decision.
About the Role
You'll be reporting to our Founding Designer, but the expectation for you to own the assigned scope end-to-end. This is a 60% design / 40% product role. You'll own features end-to-end: from researching how competitors solve similar problems, to designing in our component library, to building live prototypes that show full behavior and edge cases, to defending your decisions with engineers and product leads.
We're looking for someone who's part designer, part product thinker. You should be the kind of person who maps out competitor products for fun, builds quick prototypes to prove a point, and cares deeply about whether the thing you ship actually makes users' lives easier.
What You'll Do
- Design and ship features using our existing component library in Figma
- Build interactive prototypes with LLMs to communicate behavior and edge cases
- Research products to identify patterns worth borrowing - and gaps worth exploiting
- Partner with engineering and product to scope, refine, and defend design decisions
- Contribute to platform-level conversations about where Rox should go next
- Spot low-hanging UX improvements and take ownership of fixing them
- Propose and design new components as the system evolves
- In your first few days: You've used our component library to design a new feature, built a working prototype, and clearly communicated your decisions in a team review
- Within a few weeks: You've cleaned up and polished a full section of the Rox OS, proposed component improvements, and mapped out competitor approaches to a key problem
- Within a few months: You're a core voice in platform decisions, influencing Rox's overall direction, and continuously shipping small UX wins without being asked
- Great of layout, color, typography, and motion in designing products.
- Proficiency with Figma and experience with design systems / component library development
- Comfort using Cursor, Windsurf, or AI-assisted tools to build interactive prototypes
- Familiarity with wireframing tools like Whimsical for early-stage ideation
- Background in startups or small teams where you wore multiple hats
- Ability to clearly explain and defend design decisions to technical and non-technical partners
- Experience designing complex, data-rich products (enterprise software, dashboards, or similar)
Rox is defining a new category of software. The way it looks and feels isn't a detail, it's the difference between a product people tolerate and one they love. We're here to build a product our users love. This role exists to ensure Rox stays simple, useful, and beautiful as we scale.
If you want real ownership, real influence, and a chance to shape something from the ground up at a company defining the future of AI, this is one of those rare roles where your fingerprints will still be visible years from now.