Design Engineer - Founding Team

Greylock Partners; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Greylock Partners is seeking a Founding Design Engineer to join early-stage enterprise startups as one of the first hires. You will help define the product from day one, shape strategy, and make foundational decisions that influence the company’s direction as you tackle high-impact AI challenges.

You’ll collaborate directly with founders and customers to translate ambiguous problems into intuitive, polished products, blending design sensibility with frontend engineering excellence to ship

Qualifications

• 5+ years building customer-facing software with strong product design and frontend focus.
• Strong frontend development skills with modern web technologies (React, TypeScript, Next.js or similar).
• Excellent visual, interaction, and product design instincts with a portfolio showing high-quality execution.
• Ability to turn ambiguous problems into intuitive, polished products.

Responsibilities

• Shape product strategy and influence company direction as an early team member.
• Collaborate with founders and customers to translate complex problems into practical product solutions.
• Build and ship high-impact frontend features that define the product experience.

Skills

Frontend engineering

Product design

React

TypeScript

Next.js

UI/UX design

Problem solving

Tools

Figma

HTML/CSS

Job description

Several of our early stage enterprise startups are looking to bring on a Founding Design Engineer as part of their early teams. This is a rare opportunity to join a well funded, founder-led startup at the earliest stages and help build a category defining product from the ground up. As one of the first hires, you'll have a true seat at the table, shaping product strategy, influencing company direction, and making foundational decisions that will impact the business for years to come. You'll work on complex, high impact challenges at the forefront of AI, collaborating directly with exceptional founders and customers to create products that solve real world problems.

Qualifications

We're looking for a Founding Design Engineer who thrives at the intersection of product design and frontend engineering. You'll help define not only what we build, but how we build it—working directly with founders, customers, and early teammates to turn ambiguous problems into intuitive, polished products.

What we're looking for

• 5+ years of experience building and shipping customer-facing software, with strength in both product design and frontend engineering.
• Strong frontend development skills with modern web technologies (React, TypeScript, Next.js, or similar frameworks).
• Excellent visual, interaction, and product design instincts, with a portfolio demonstrating thoughtful user experiences and high-quality execution.
• Passion for solving complex, meaningful problems and creating products customers genuinely love.

Nice to Have

• Experience at a startup working on ambiguous problems.
• Experience building design systems and component libraries.
• Familiarity with AI-native products, developer tools, data products, or other complex B2B software.
• Experience establishing product design processes in fast-growing organizations.
• Ability to prototype rapidly using code, AI tools, or emerging design technologies.

What Success Looks Like

• You can take a customer problem from a conversation to a prototype to production with minimal handoffs.
• You bring both design taste and engineering rigor, raising the quality bar across the entire product experience.
• You thrive when there isn't a clear playbook and enjoy creating structure where none exists.
• You're energized by working alongside ambitious founders tackling difficult, important problems in large markets.