Design Engineer - Americas

Ashby; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 122,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary and equity

Unlimited PTO

Fully paid parental leave

$100/month education budget

Top-tier health insurance

Job summary

Ashby, located in Chicago, is looking for a talented Design Engineer. The role emphasizes both design and coding, requiring a blend of creative and technical skills. You will work on projects that impact over 100,000 weekly active users.

We offer a competitive salary range of $122,000 – $220,000, unlimited PTO, and top-tier health insurance. If you are ready to contribute to a growing team and shape the future of our applications, join Ashby!

Qualifications

• No more than 2 years of industry experience for Junior Design Engineer.
• 2+ years experience as an engineer or designer for Mid & Senior roles.
• Demonstrated contributions to a design system for Staff Design Engineer.

Responsibilities

• Redesigned mobile web app by wireframing new flows and implementing designs.
• Built flexible components for a design system.
• Improved information hierarchy for viewing candidate assessments.

Skills

TypeScript

React

CSS

GraphQL

Node.js

Job description

Hi I’m Abhik, Ashby’s Co-Founder and VP of Engineering. This role is close to my heart because, as someone who can both design and code, it’s where I’ve always done my best work, but also where I was seen as a rebel and an outsider. I want folks like me to feel at home at Ashby, and so I made Design Engineering a formal role and department that works closely with me. Our first hire was over five years ago, and we’re doubling the team from five to over ten in the next year.

This role truly expects you to design and code. A Design Engineer at Ashby isn’t just a Frontend Engineer with new branding, nor is it a Designer with a coding prototype. Combining excellence in both is where magic happens. When I put my best effort into both the design and technical implementation of a feature, I’ve had a nimbleness and creativity that is hard to achieve when I do only one or the other. The UX and UI I envisioned often influenced the data model’s design and flexibility, while my understanding of technology’s capabilities often simplified or improved the design. This role embraces that.

The Design Engineer Role is more common today than five years ago, but I believe Ashby offers a unique opportunity that few can match. The role has always had the commitment of both Benji (CEO & Co‑Founder) and me; I’ve championed it since we started hiring in 2020, and we’ve never diluted its responsibilities. You’ll work on a product at scale, not on an early‑stage startup struggling to find users. At Ashby, your work will touch over 100,000 weekly active users, millions of candidates per week, and notable customers such as Notion, Linear, Shopify, and Snowflake.

Responsibilities

• Redesigned our mobile web app by talking with customers, wireframing new flows, implementing the new design system, and turning those wireframes into reality.
• Built a set of flexible, composable components in our design system so that other engineers can easily create beautiful, consistent setup wizards across our product.
• Helped a Product Engineer improve the information hierarchy and scannability of their design for viewing a candidate’s assessments, enabling recruiters to quickly parse information and pick out anomalies.

Qualifications & Levels

• Junior Design Engineer – No more than 2 years of industry experience as either a designer or engineer. Demonstrate projects (personal or professional) with at least a couple of users that showcase strong visual taste and burgeoning talent in both UI/UX and engineering.
• Design Engineer (Mid & Senior) – 2+ years of continuous experience (internships do not count) as an engineer or designer. Proficiency in both design and engineering, with exceptional proficiency in the discipline you practice full‑time. Experience designing products and shipping code to hundreds of users (even through side projects) is expected.
• Staff Design Engineer – Demonstrated professional practice in our flavor of Design Engineering. Major contributions to a design system, and design and implementation of features for hundreds of users with iterative user feedback.

Technology Stack

TypeScript (frontend & backend), React, GraphQL API, Node.js, Postgres, and Redis. Minimum proficiency required: TypeScript, React, and CSS. Knowledge of backend technologies is a plus.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity.
• 10‑year exercise window for stock options.
• Unlimited PTO; we encourage you to take it.
• Minimum of 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave, covered by Ashby. For non‑US locations, leave may be longer to align with local requirements.
• Generous budget for equipment, software, and office furniture.
• $100/month education budget (additional expenses covered with manager approval).
• In the US, top‑tier health insurance for you and dependents with 100% of premiums covered. In other countries, high‑quality supplemental health insurance fully covered by us.

EEO Statement

Ashby provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities.

Compensation Range

$122,000 – $220,000