Product Designer

NextWork; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

401(k)

Health insurance

Job summary

NextWork is seeking its second product designer in Austin to craft high-quality learning experiences. You’ll own visual design and interaction details, ship features in production, and collaborate closely with the lead designer and founder in a fast-paced, feedback-rich environment.

You should have a strong portfolio of shipped design work, a love for beautiful consumer software, and comfort building in a scrappy startup setting where AI plays a central role.

Qualifications

• Portfolio of design work already in production.
• Ability to ship features in a scrappy startup.
• Strong eye for details in spacing, rhythm, and hierarchy.

Responsibilities

• Champion for high quality craft across NextWork’s product and visual decisions.
• Bring motion and delight to the learning experience with interactions and micro-interactions.
• Work with the lead designer and founder to align on what great looks like and ship.
• Partner with engineering to get work into production and iterate from learner feedback.
• Spend time with learners to understand how they use and feel about your work daily.

Skills

Product design

Visual design

Interaction design

Portfolio in production

Education

Bachelor's degree in Design

Job description

Welcome to NextWork, the company changing the way the world learns.

As our second product designer, you’re stepping into a high-craft, high-trust and high-ownership role in a team of seven. Learners spend hours on NextWork every day, and this role will be obsessive about the quality of that experience.

We’re a close-knit team that values collaboration, transparency and low ego. Your work will directly change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. As a team, we challenge each other to push the limits of what we can build in our lifetime.

What you’ll do

• Champion for a high quality craft bar across NextWork’s product; execute on sharp product and visual decisions.
• Bring motion and delight into the learning experience, like interactive architecture diagrams, animations, micro-interactions.
• Work in a tight feedback loop with our lead designer and our founder to align on what “great” looks like, then ship.
• Partner closely with engineering to get your work into production and iterate based on learner feedback.
• Spend time with our learners to deeply understand how they use and feel about your work every day.

You’ll love it here if you…

• Are obsessed about beautiful consumer software (we love Linear, Notion, Fey, Canva, and more).
• Care deeply about the details users feel (spacing, rhythm, hierarchy, motion), it’s your happy place.
• Have a portfolio of design work that’s already in production, not just mockups or static screens.
• Are ready to work extremely closely with our lead designer and our founder, to learn and carry forward the vision for NextWork product experience.
• Are ready to thrive in a high-feedback environment with the team. You are not overly attached to any design – be ready to iterate and start over!
• Want to be early enough to shape everything in a scrappy environment, and held accountable that what you build is being used by learners at scale.
• Have strong opinions, hold them lightly, and move fast when the facts change.

This might not be for you if you…

• Want to work remotely.
• Need a fully specced design system before you can start.
• Want to spend most of your time in design research.
• Want a calm, predictable pace.
• Don’t want to stay close to engineering to get the work shipped, or for continuous improvements once it’s in production.
• Don’t actively use AI in your workflow – we’re an AI-native startup building in 2026.

About NextWork

NextWork’s mission is to meet the skill demand to solve the world’s toughest problems, and we’re doing this by building the best place to learn and showcase your AI skills.

We’re a small, tight-knit team of seven that just moved from New Zealand to Austin. 200k+ people across 190+ countries are learning with NextWork, and AI is just the beginning. This role will shape our visual language, interaction quality, and design culture as we scale.

Perks and benefits

• Equity – Own a part of the business that you’re building!
• 401(k) with up to 3% company contribution
• Health, dental, vision insurance

Come work with us!

At NextWork, your work helps close humanity’s skill gap.