Sr Founding Product Designer

Syndesus, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary: $180K – $230K

Equity: Offered

100% medical, dental, vision coverage

Unlimited meals and snacks

Gym, cellphone, internet and commute

Visa sponsorship available

Job summary

Syndesus, Inc. seeks a founding Senior Product Designer in the San Francisco Bay Area to own end-to-end design for a real-time voice AI platform. You will work directly with founders, engineers, and customers to shape features from first principles rather than polishing after decisions are made.

This high-ownership role requires driving UX quality, design standards, and a scalable design system across a fast-moving startup. Location is in-office in the SF Bay Area.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of product design experience on shipped products.
• Strong user-centered design background (HCI, design, or equivalent).
• Excellent product taste with usability, visual hierarchy and clarity.

Responsibilities

• Own the full product design lifecycle from concept to shipped features in real-time environments.
• Shape interactions with AI voice agents and translate complex workflows into intuitive experiences.
• Collaborate with engineers and founders to define, refine, and ship features while preserving design quality from concept to production.
• Conduct customer interviews and translate user pain points into design solutions.
• Build and evolve the company's design system to ensure consistency and scalability as the product grows.

Skills

Product design

User-centered design

Visual design

Design systems

Startup environment

Tools

Figma

Job description

Sr. Founding Product Designer | San Francisco Bay Area | In office | Full-time

Product Designer | Voice AI Startup

About the Company

Our client is a fast-growing Y Combinator-backed Voice AI startup reimagining the modern contact center from first principles. Backed by leading investors and scaling at an exceptional pace — $36M ARR with a team of just 20 people — they're building the infrastructure that powers real-time AI voice agents for thousands of companies across sales, support, and logistics. Recognized as a top 50 AI app and one of the fastest-growing software vendors of 2025, this is a team that moves fast and builds things that matter.

The Role

As a Founding Senior Product Designer, you'll own the end-to-end product design experience for a platform where every interaction happens in real time, under pressure, with real users. You'll work directly with founders, engineers, and customers to shape features from first principles — not just polish UI after decisions are made. This is a high-ownership role with genuine influence over product direction, UX quality, and design standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the full product design lifecycle — from early concepts and PRDs through to polished, shipped features used by customers in high-stakes, real-time environments
• Shape how users interact with AI voice agents, translating complex technical workflows into clear, intuitive experiences
• Partner directly with engineers and founders to define, refine, and ship features, ensuring design quality is preserved all the way to production
• Conduct customer interviews and translate real user pain points into thoughtful, effective design solutions
• Proactively identify friction, inconsistencies, and opportunities across the product and drive improvements from idea to launch
• Build and evolve the company's design system, setting standards for consistency and scalability as the product and team grow
• Influence product direction through strong opinions, clear rationale, and taste-driven decisions

Requirements

• 5+ years of product design experience on shipped products
• Strong user-centered design background — HCI, design, or equivalent
• Excellent product taste with a sharp sense of usability, visual hierarchy, and clarity
• Detail-oriented with a high bar for polish and consistency
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, ambiguous startup environment
• Ownership mindset — you prefer end-to-end problem ownership over a narrow design scope
• Bonus: Experience designing developer-facing or technical products

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $180K – $230K
• Equity: Offered
• Schedule: Full-time, 70 hrs/week (50 onsite + 20 remote, flexible hours)
• Location: Redwood City, CA
• 100% medical, dental, vision coverage
• Unlimited meals and snacks
• Gym, cellphone, internet and commute reimbursement
• Visa sponsorship available (H1B, TN, L-1, E-3, F-1, O-1)

Interview Process

1. Recruiter intro call (15 min)
2. Portfolio walkthrough and design decision discussion (30 min)
3. Live UX question or brief design exercise — candidate's choice (45 min)
4. Onsite (3 hours): live Figma design exercise + user understanding deep dive

Compensation

The base pay range for this role is $180,000 – $230,000 per year.