Fractional Founding Designer

Clera; United States; Remote; USD 55,000 - 83,000; Part time

Job summary

Clera is building an early-stage AI talent marketplace and seeks its first designer to shape the product experience. This fractional role covers 10–20 hours per week, collaborating with product and engineering to set the design direction and standards.

You will define visual and interaction design for core experiences, establish design systems and documentation, and create high‑fidelity mockups and prototypes to hand to engineers.

Qualifications

• 3+ years designing and shipping consumer or B2B products end to end.
• Proficiency with Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD for mockups and prototypes.
• Experience establishing design systems and documentation with product/engineering.
• Portfolio showing shipped work and product problem solving.
• Experience in early-stage startups or fractional roles; design-to-code handoff familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the product's visual and interaction design across key experiences.
• Establish design systems, standards, and documentation for consistency.
• Create high-fidelity mockups/prototypes and partner with product/engineering to implement.
• Make design decisions with limited information; iterate from user feedback.
• Use user research and usability testing to improve the product experience.

Skills

UX design

Product design

User research

Usability testing

Design thinking

Tools

Figma

Sketch

Adobe XD

HTML/CSS basics

Job description

About the Role

As the first designer, you will shape the product experience for an early-stage AI talent marketplace. Working fractionally for 10 to 20 hours per week with product and engineering, you will set the design direction and standards that guide what the team builds.

What You'll Do

• Define and evolve the product's visual and interaction design across its most important experiences.

• Establish design systems, standards, and documentation that help the team build consistently.

• Create high-fidelity mockups and prototypes, then partner with product and engineering to implement them.

• Make product and design decisions with limited information, iterating based on user feedback.

• Use user research, usability testing, and qualitative feedback to improve the product experience.

What We're Looking For

• At least 3 years of experience designing and shipping consumer or B2B products end to end.

• Proficiency with Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD for mockups and prototypes.

• Experience establishing design systems and documentation, and working directly with product and engineering teams to address technical constraints.

• A portfolio showing shipped work and a clear approach to solving product problems.

• Experience in early-stage startups or fractional design roles is helpful, as is familiarity with design-to-code handoff and HTML/CSS.

Location

Fully remote, with the primary location in the DACH region.