Design Engineer

Granola; City Of London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative tech startup in London is looking for a Design Engineer to bridge the gap between design and engineering. In this hybrid role, you'll build and maintain design systems, prototype high-quality interfaces, and work closely with product and engineering teams to innovate user experiences, especially in AI-driven tools. If you thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, this might be the perfect opportunity for you.

Benefits

Relocation assistance

Above market salary

Competitive equity

Qualifications

• Experience in startup environments preferred.
• Proven ability to work in both design and engineering roles.
• Comfortable prototyping in various tools.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain robust design systems in Figma and code.
• Prototype and ship high-quality UI.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, and Engineering teams.
• Identify and fix gaps between design and engineering.

Skills

Experience working as a Design Engineer

Highly proficient with React

Strong visual and interaction design skills

Natural prototyper

Experience with design systems

Tools

Figma

Tailwind

TypeScript

Job description

Hey! We’re team Granola 👋

If you haven’t already, you should check out what we’re building, and why you should work here.

We're looking for a Design Engineer to bridge the gap between design and engineering, helping us craft polished, delightful, and technically excellent user experiences.

You’ll be a hybrid thinker and maker, comfortable working in both Figma and code, and you’ll play a critical role in evolving how Granola feels in the hands of our users.

In this role, you will:

• Build and maintain a robust, scalable design system in both Figma and code (React, Tailwind etc.)
• Prototype and ship high-quality, production-ready UI that nails the details — from typography and color to motion and microinteractions
• Collaborate closely with Product, Design, and Engineering to bring new features to life, from early concept to polished implementation
• Maintain consistency as we grow across multiple platforms (Mac, Windows, iOS)
• Identify and fix gaps between design and engineering, raising the quality bar across the product
• Help invent new interaction patterns for AI-driven tools

Your background looks something like:

• Experience working as a Design Engineer, frontend engineer with strong design skills, or designer with strong engineering skills
• Highly proficient with React, TypeScript, Tailwind and have a solid grasp of modern frontend architecture
• Strong visual and interaction design skills — you care deeply about details, polish, and making things feel "just right"
• Natural prototyper who's comfortable exploring in Figma, code, or AI tools, depending on what's fastest
• Worked on (or are drawn to) design systems and component libraries, and know how to balance consistency with flexibility

As a person, you…

• Are first and foremost abuilder
• Are excited towork in-personfrom our office in London (most of the time)
• Love working in astartup environment(you either have experience working in a startup or are really drawn to the zero-to-one phase)
• Value working with people who arekind,ambitious, andpragmatic
• Thrive in a fast-paced iterative startup environment where experimentation is encouraged

Why this role is special:

• You won't just hand off designs to engineers or code up specs you didn't influence. You'll be both designing and building the Granola interface.
• We're inventing new AI-powered workflows. This means prototyping, testing, and refining interactions that don't yet have established patterns.
• You’ll work closely with Sam (co-founder & designer), our founding designer, and our talented engineering team, all of whom care deeply about product quality. You’ll have space and support to push for exceptional user experiences.

About the opportunity

We are living in the most exciting time for tool builders since Engelbart's demo in 1968. We want to assemble the best crew to build this future together, here in London. Our compensation philosophy is to pay slightly above market on salary and above market on equity.

We do our best work in person, and so our team spends time together five days per week in our new, bright, and spacious office at Old Street. We are happy to offer relocation assistance to candidates who’ll be moving to London to join us.

Lastly, we think amazing talent comes from all kinds of life journeys and experiences. If what is written above speaks to you, whether you look like a fit on paper or not, please reach out.