Product Designer

Sauna by Wordware; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental coverage

401(k)

Equity

Gym budget

Lunch

Job summary

Sauna by Wordware in San Francisco is seeking a Product Designer to reimagine how humans collaborate with AI. You will design interfaces that make collaborating with AI feel like a natural conversation and work with engineers to create scalable design patterns.

The role targets designers with 5+ years at Senior, Staff, or Principal level, and involves building a design system, conducting user research, and influencing product strategy.

Qualifications

• Designed complex products with high usability and adoption
• Deep understanding of information and interaction architecture for multi‑platform systems
• Expertise in interaction design, including keyboard‑first interfaces
• Strong visual design skills with scalable design systems
• Prototyping from paper to high‑fidelity demos; closer to code is a plus
• Understand interface development concepts for mobile and web
• Communicate design rationale effectively to technical and non‑technical stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Design end‑to‑end flows for AI agent creation
• Design across mobile, desktop, and responsive web
• Develop interaction patterns for real‑time AI feedback
• Build and maintain design system for evolving surfaces
• Prototype interfaces using real AI models
• Partner with engineering to scale designs
• Conduct user research to uncover opportunities
• Design for progressive disclosure to reveal complexity
• Create motion and micro‑interactions for AI processes
• Influence product strategy through design exploration

Skills

Senior-level design

Interaction design

Visual design

Design systems

Prototyping

User research

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Full-time, in-person role at Wordware San Francisco (Presidio). Must be based in the Bay Area or willing to relocate prior to starting. Requires U.S. work authorization, with open O‑1 or J‑1 visa sponsorship for exceptional candidates.

About Sauna By Wordware

Sauna is a coworker that learns how you work, gains autonomy task by task, and eventually runs hours of work on its own. Wordware is the ~20‑person team behind it, backed by Spark Capital, Felicis, and Y Combinator with a $30 M seed—largest in YC history. We build in a San Francisco office near the Golden Gate Bridge, working hard because we can see and feel every outcome.

About The Role

We’re looking for a Product Designer to reimagine how humans collaborate with AI. You’ll design interfaces that make collaborating with AI feel as natural as a conversation with a friend, colleague, or employee. The role expects you to navigate extreme complexity while keeping delight for the user front‑and‑center. You’ll work directly with engineers to create new design patterns, shape how millions will build and collaborate with AI, and report to the CEO and Head of Product.

Heads‑up: role is intended for designers with 5+ years of experience operating at Senior, Staff, or Principal level.

What You’ll Do

• Design end‑to‑end user flows for AI agent creation, from natural language input to deployment
• Design across platforms: mobile, desktop, and responsive web
• Develop interaction patterns for real‑time feedback where the assistant comes alive in the experience
• Build and maintain our design system, ensuring consistency across rapidly evolving product surfaces
• Prototype novel interfaces using real AI models to validate design decisions with actual system behavior and real users
• Partner with engineering to ensure designs perform beautifully at scale
• Conduct user research to uncover unmet needs and opportunities
• Design for progressive disclosure, revealing complexity only when users need it
• Create motion and micro‑interactions that make synchronous and asynchronous AI processes feel responsive
• Influence product strategy by identifying opportunities through design exploration

Minimum Requirements

This role demands someone who thrives at the intersection of design craft and technical systems.

• Have designed complex products that achieved both usability and adoption goals
• Demonstrate deep understanding of information and interaction architecture for multi‑platform systems
• Show expertise in interaction design, including keyboard‑first interfaces
• Bring strong visual design skills with proven ability to create cohesive, scalable design systems
• Excel at prototyping, from paper sketches to high‑fidelity interactive demos (bonus: the closer to real code the better)
• Understand interface development concepts and limitations for mobile and web to design feasible solutions
• Communicate design rationale effectively to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders

Bonus (but Not Required)

• Built products using LLMs or other AI technologies as a designer or builder
• Digital native who leverages AI as a creative partner, using generative models in your workflow
• Thrive in an AI‑native environment where pushing boundaries with these tools is part of daily practice
• Motion design skills for creating fluid, responsive interfaces
• Code proficiency enabling you to build functional prototypes or contribute to implementation
• Experience with design engineering, bridging design and development workflows
• Track record of designing for uncertainty and evolving system capabilities
• Background in conversational UI or natural language interfaces
• Published writing or talks about product design
• Experience designing for both technical and non‑technical users in the same product

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary: $140K–$220K + meaningful early‑stage equity + health, dental, 401(k), considerable PTO, gym budget, lunch.

The Process

We keep our process simple. Exceptional candidates go from first touch to offer within 2 weeks.

• Application: Submit your resume and answer a few short questions.
• 15‑minute intro call: Quick check to align on location, motivation, and logistics.
• Portfolio review & design exercise: Walk through your work, then work through a real Wordware design problem with us.
• Final conversation: We answer your questions and scope out the work trial.
• Work trial: Paid, in person, usually a few days to two weeks. You work on a real project with us. See how we work, see if it fits, both sides.