Lead Designer (Remote, or San Francisco)
About the company
Unternet is a brand new startup building the future fabric of the web. We’re backed by Betaworks & Mozilla Ventures, and will soon be completing our pre-seed raise of $3-5M. Our goal is to build the successor to the browser, an intelligent web-based operating system that can coordinate information and apps to help humans get things done & live better digital lives.
Our first launch is the open-source Web Applets protocol & SDK, which allows anyone to build AI-native apps that are compatible with any client that implements the protocol.
This is a greenfield era for interface design, and we believe design will be our most important differentiator. Of particular importance will be finding the right metaphors to communicate novel interactions clearly to users. The designs you create with Unternet have the potential to set the tone for the future of human-computer interfaces for decades to come!
About the role
As Lead Designer, you'll be one of Unternet's first hires, in charge of leading design & shaping the product direction of the company. You'll be responsible for...
- Product design. Working closely with the rest of leadership to set the strategy & direction for product, and iterating with engineering to develop & ship our first releases.
- Brand & visual communication. Using your sense of style & taste to build a beautiful brand and language for visual communication for the company (either in-house or in collaboration with external studios).
- User research. Talking to users to understand the problems we'll be solving, and synthesize insights for our product.
- Team-building. You'll be hiring a carefully curated team of incredible designers that you'll be excited to work with.
Everyone is different, and we recognize that backgrounds and skill sets that suit this role will vary. However, here are a few things we think will be useful for any applicant:
- You have 6+ years of product design experience, with at least 2 years leading design teams
- You have a strong portfolio demonstrating experience with complex web applications
- You're comfortable working with high ambiguity & 0-1 product conception
- You have a depth of understanding of computing history & interface design fundamentals
- You understand engineers, and can work cross-functionally to iterate on product together
- You're empathetic & have experience with user research and testing
- Bonus points if you can code components!
Compensation
US$130,000 – US$190,000 + Leadership equity package (2-5%)
We will work together to decide on the (competitive!) market rate for your region & circumstances.