Design Engineer

Profound; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Profound is seeking a Design Engineer to bridge design and engineering, delivering polished UI across core product and marketing surfaces. You will work with designers, product managers, and engineers to translate intent into precise, high-fidelity implementations, crafting layouts, typography, and motion with Tailwind CSS.

The role emphasizes end-to-end ownership, collaboration in fast-moving teams, and building reusable UI foundations while ensuring performance and accessibility across the

Qualifications

• Prototyping and shipping high-quality UI in production.
• Strong CSS skills with pixel-perfect implementation.
• Experience collaborating with designers and engineers in fast-moving teams.
• Portfolio demonstrating high-craft frontend or design engineering work.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship polished, production-quality UI across core product or marketing site.
• Partner with designers, PMs, and engineers to translate intent into high-fidelity implementations.
• Craft UI details including layouts, typography, responsiveness, motion, and micro-interactions using Tailwind CSS.
• Contribute to marketing site and logged-out experiences with equal quality and performance.
• Contribute to shared UI foundations including components, patterns, and design tokens.
• Work across the stack using React, Next.js, and TypeScript to deliver fast interfaces.
• Optimize for performance, accessibility, and maintainability without compromising design.
• Raise the bar for frontend craft through code reviews and shared standards.

Skills

CSS

Pixel-perfect UI

Design thinking

End-to-end ownership

Cross-functional

Startup mindset

Product thinking

Builder mindset

Side projects

Tools

React

Next.js

Tailwind

TypeScript

Job description

Profound is the marketing platform for the age of AI search. The way brands reach people is being rewritten — AI models like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode are now the answer layer between companies and their customers. We built the platform marketers use to understand, measure, and win in that world: the analytics, intelligence, and agent automation that turn AI search from a threat into a competitive advantage.

We went from 0 to a $1B valuation in 18 months. Revenue grew 100x last year. Our customers include 15% of the Fortune 500 like Walmart, Wayfair and U.S. Bank, and innovators like Ramp, MongoDB, and Figma. We are backed by Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, LSVP, and Khosla Ventures — and we are moving fast enough that the people joining now are building the playbook everyone who comes after them will run.

Design engineering is core to how we build at Profound. Our founder, Dylan Babbs, started his career as a design engineer, and we hold a high bar for craft, taste, and execution. As a Design Engineer, you will work between design and engineering by shipping high-quality, highly polished experiences across our product and, at times, our marketing surfaces.

What you’ll do

• Build and ship polished, production-quality UI across our core product or marketing site

• Partner with product designers, product managers, and engineers to translate intent into precise, high-fidelity implementations

• Craft UI details including layouts, typography, responsiveness, motion, and micro-interactions using Tailwind CSS

• Contribute occasionally to the marketing site and logged-out experiences while maintaining the same bar for quality and performance

• Contribute to shared UI foundations including components, patterns, and design tokens

• Work across the stack using React, Next.js, and TypeScript to deliver fast, reliable interfaces

• Optimize for performance, accessibility, and maintainability without compromising on design

• Raise the bar for frontend craft through code reviews, critiques, and shared standards

Who you are

• Strong experience with React, Next.js, Tailwind, and TypeScript in production environments

• Exceptional CSS skills with a proven ability to build pixel-perfect, resilient user interfaces

• Strong eye for design and interaction with taste you can both defend and implement

• Comfortable owning work end to end from early exploration through shipped code

• Experience working closely with designers and engineers in fast-moving product teams

• Portfolio that demonstrates high-craft frontend or design engineering work

• Thrive in a startup environment that values speed, iteration, and quality

• Enjoy experimenting and working on side projects to stay current with leading edge technologies

• Strong product thinking and builder mindset, comfortable working across design, product, and engineering to ship work

• Can just do things

Note from our co-founder

In the evolving landscape of product development, exceptional design is not merely a nice-to-have, it is foundational. As software engineering becomes increasingly accessible, it is taste, creativity, and thoughtful execution that differentiate outstanding products from the rest.

I believe deeply that design sits at the core of our success. At Profound, my goal is to build a design team renowned for setting a new standard of excellence, crafting experiences so compelling they become benchmarks in our industry.

If you are someone who believes in the transformative power of great design and wants to create work that genuinely shapes the future, join us. Let’s redefine what’s possible together.

Dylan Babbs, Co-founder & CTO

Location

This is an on-site role based in our NYC or Buenos Aires office, designed for builders who thrive on speed, iteration, and meaningful impact.

For this role, the expected base salary range is $120,000 to $250,000 (NYC). Comp may vary by location. Profound’s total compensation package is designed to be competitive and includes base salary, equity, and a full range of benefits and perks. Final compensation will depend on factors such as your skills, experience, qualifications, and location, and will be determined during the interview process. Our recruiting team will share more details about the full compensation package and benefits as you move through hiring.

Note: All official communication from Profound will come from a @tryprofound.com email address. If you're contacted by anyone using a different domain, please disregard and report it as spam.