Founding Design Engineer

Noto; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Lunch in office

Work setup stipend

Company retreats

Job summary

Noto is hiring the founding design engineer in New York City to own how the product looks, works, and reads. You will guide design from first sketch to shipped experience, combining design, engineering, and product judgment to create intuitive, delightful software for education businesses.

You will influence the entire product’s design language, establish components and copy standards, and work across the stack to ship features end to end with a strong emphasis on user needs and business impact.

Qualifications

• Four or more years designing and building software products.
• Full‑stack ability with React, Next.js, Node, and Postgres; able to ship features end to end and assess AI‑generated code quality.
• Strong product judgment and ability to simplify complex workflows for users.

Responsibilities

• Own the design of the entire product, from layouts and workflows to copy on every screen.
• Design and build projects end to end, from UI to database.
• Set quality standards and guide other engineers through early scoping to final polish.
• Identify moments of confusion and redesign to improve user experience.
• Establish components, patterns, and copy standards for the team.

Skills

Product design

Full‑stack development

Product judgment

Copywriting

Ambiguity tolerance

Startup experience

Education domain interest

Tools

React

Next.js

Node.js

Postgres

Job description

About Noto

Noto is the AI-native operating system for after-school businesses: tutoring centers, music schools, sports academies, and dance studios. About 180,000 of these businesses operate in the U.S., and millions of kids pass through them every week.

They’re run by people who are passionate about teaching but spend their evenings managing schedules, payroll, and parent emails—often in software built in 2011, or in spreadsheets and sticky notes.

Noto replaces the entire stack with a modern platform for scheduling, billing, payroll, marketing, CRM, communications, classroom management, and student and parent portals. We bring the whole back office into one place, with AI agents that automate manual work instead of simply tracking it.

A school that spends less time on paperwork can teach more kids, hire another teacher, and grow its business. Come help us build the best operating system for these small‑business owners!

(Fall 2026 team offsite: magic shows, lawn games, trivia, friendly competition, bartender‑made drinks, and a cookout )

Team

We’re a team of about 20 in New York City: smart, collaborative, ambitious, and genuinely nice to work with.

AJ Ding (CEO) — second‑time founder who previously built an AI recruiting company. ML engineer and data scientist at Quora, Lyft, and Meta. Studied statistics at Yale and grew up in a family of small‑business owners.

Steve Wang (CTO) — former Head of Engineering at Nitra, an a16z‑backed vertical SaaS company for doctors. Previously worked in data science and engineering at Lyft. Studied math at Harvard.

We’ve raised $4M from Base10 Partners and South Park Commons.

Location

• Four days in the office at Herald Square and one day remote

• One week per quarter working from anywhere

• Occasional travel for team offsites and customer visits

The Role

The founding design engineer will own how Noto looks, works, and reads. This is an opportunity to define the design foundation for a product our customers rely on all day—and to make it genuinely intuitive and delightful. You’ll combine design and engineering with strong product judgment, taste, and empathy for users, taking ideas from the first sketch through the shipped experience.

Our users spend six hours a day in Noto across a wide range of workflows. The product has grown quickly, and some parts are more complex than they need to be. You’ll have the scope and ownership to bring clarity, cohesion, and craft to the entire experience. You will:

• Own the design of the entire product—from layouts and workflows to the words on every screen.

• Design and build your own projects end to end, from the UI to the database.

• Set the quality bar for design and shape other engineers’ work from early scoping through final polish.

• Identify the moments that confuse or slow down our customers, then redesign and build better solutions.

• Establish the components, patterns, and copy standards that define how the team builds.

This is not marketing or brand work. It’s hands‑on product ownership, with the freedom to shape both what we build and how we build it.

Ideal Candidate

• Four or more years designing and building software products

• Full‑stack ability. You’re comfortable with our stack (React, Next.js, Node, and Postgres), can use AI to ship features end to end, and can tell when AI‑generated code is wrong.

• Product judgment. You can take a messy workflow, such as rescheduling a missed lesson for a family with three kids, and make it simple. You can explain why your version works.

• Care for words and small details. Labels, error messages, empty states, and emails to parents matter to you as much as layout does.

• Comfort with ambiguity. Much of what you’ll work on starts with unstructured customer call notes. You go to the source, talk to the owner or front desk, and uncover the real problem.

• Bonus: you’ve been the first or only designer at a company, or you’ve designed complex operational software such as scheduling, billing, or admin tools.

• Interest in helping education businesses thrive

Culture

As our first design engineer, you’ll have a huge impact on how we build our product and shape our design culture. Here’s what’s true today:

• Serve the customer. Our users run small businesses. We sit in their schools, attend their industry conferences, and take support calls ourselves. We get ideas by listening to our customers’ problems.

• Low ego. We make decisions collaboratively. Nobody wins an argument through seniority, including the founders. Good ideas come from whoever is closest to the problem.

• Ownership. You’ll own a large, mission‑critical part of the product. It’s intense, but rewarding. Customers will send thank‑you gifts and sing your praises when you ship something useful—and call for help on a Saturday if something goes wrong.

• Work ethic. Team members work 50–60‑hour weeks. Some late nights and occasional weekends are expected. The role is about growth and impact. If you want to build something meaningful and grow quickly, let’s talk.

• Growth mindset. We attend industry conferences to connect with our users, learn, network, and push the boundaries of our craft.

Compensation

• Competitive salary and equity worth caring about

• 100% company‑paid benefits

• Lunch in the office and a stipend for your work setup

• Company retreats

Interview Process

1. 30‑minute meet and greet on Zoom

2. 60‑minute design interview over Zoom: product walkthrough and critique. We’ll dig into the decisions and tradeoffs behind your work, then diagnose a real Noto screen and propose a fix.

3. 45‑minute technical screen on Zoom

4. Onsite in New York City to experience a day in the life of a Notopian

When you apply, include your portfolio and a link to something you’ve built and shipped.

Why Work With Us

Our product makes a huge positive impact on business owners, educators, and their local communities. Watch our customer testimonial video at the bottom of our home page and see it for yourself.

If you’re a designer who builds and want to own how a product people use all day looks, works, and reads, we’d love to meet you.

Note: At this time, we're unable to sponsor employment visas for this role. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full‑time basis.