User Interface Developer (Hybrid UX Engineer / Interactive Systems Developer)

Jenn Nguyen and Friends; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary plus equity

Relocation assistance ($5K–$10K)

Job summary

Jenn Nguyen and Friends in San Francisco is seeking a User Interface Developer for a hybrid role focused on creating intuitive designs for surgical robotics. The position involves significant autonomy in a small team, competitive compensation, and opportunities for growth into technical leadership.

This role combines design with hands-on coding, requiring strong UX instincts and technical skills in modern frontend frameworks. The ideal candidate will engage directly with surgeons to shape product outcomes effectively.

Qualifications

• Experience with user research and requirements gathering.
• Hands-on experience shipping interactive products is essential.
• Proficiency in TypeScript and modern frontend frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement intuitive UI/UX for robotic control systems.
• Build interactive 2D/3D visualizations and simulations.
• Conduct hands-on user research to enhance product design.

Skills

User research

TypeScript

Game development

Interactive 3D systems

Frontend frameworks

Education

Computer Science degree

Tools

Unity

React

Three.js

Job description

About the job

User Interface Developer (Hybrid UX Engineer / Interactive Systems Developer)

Location: San Francisco, CA • Hiring Target: 1 • Work Policy: 5 days/week in-office • Sponsorship: Visa transfers supported (not open to OPT) • Stage: Seed-stage surgical robotics company | $14M raised

San Francisco, California, United States Jenn Nguyen and Friends

Who Are We?
Were building autonomous surgical robots designed to dramatically shorten the learning curve for complex procedures. By combining robotics, ML, computer vision, and intuitive human-machine interfaces, were redefining how surgeons interact with advanced surgical systems.

Our mission is bold and tangible: make high-quality surgical care more accessible worldwide by lowering the technical barrier for surgeons. Were well-funded, commercially progressing, and building a team that blends creativity with deep technical execution.

What’s in It for You?

• Work on real-world products that directly impact patient outcomes.
• Design and build interfaces that control surgical robots in real time.
• Join a fast-moving, well-funded seed-stage company with strong commercial traction.
• High autonomy and influence in a small frontend team (2 people).
• Competitive base salary plus meaningful equity.
• Relocation assistance ($5K–$10K).
• Opportunity to grow into technical leadership as the team scales.

What Will You Do?

• Design and implement intuitive UI/UX for robotic control systems on touchscreen devices (iPads and similar).
• Build interactive 2D/3D visualizations and simulations using frameworks such as Three.js, Unity, Unreal, or Babylon.js.
• Gather user requirements directly from surgeons and clinical stakeholders.
• Conduct hands-on user research and translate findings into product decisions.
• Prototype rapidly and iterate on interfaces blending gaming, robotics, and real-time systems.
• Develop performant web applications in TypeScript using modern frontend frameworks.
• Integrate real-time data streams, sensor input, and control systems into interactive interfaces.
• Travel up to once per month to observe product use in surgical settings.

What Will You Need?

• Hybrid profile: designer who can code OR engineer with strong UX instincts.
• Strong user research and requirements gathering experience.
• Hands-on experience shipping interactive products (internal tools acceptable; research prototypes alone are not sufficient).
• Experience with game development or interactive 3D systems (Unity, Unreal, or similar).
• Strong TypeScript and modern frontend experience (React, Vue, Lit, Web Components, HTML/CSS).
• Familiarity with 2D/3D rendering libraries or engines (Three.js, Babylon.js, Godot, Pixi.js).
• Motion/animation experience.
• Comfort viewing live surgical procedures during site visits.

Strongly Preferred

• Human Machine Interface (HMI) or Human Robot Interface (HRI) experience.
• Robotics/device control interface design.
• Understanding of real-time systems, WebSockets, or streaming data.
• Experience with physics engines (PhysX, Bullet, Box2D).
• 3D modeling experience.
• Mobile platform experience (React Native, SwiftUI, Flutter).
• Startup experience.
• CS degree.

Must Not Have

• Research-only focus with minimal shipped product.
• Pure designer with no ability to implement.
• Pure frontend engineer with no UX instincts.

Role Balance

• Approximately 60% design / 40% coding (flexible depending on candidate strength).
• Portfolio must demonstrate both design thinking and implemented work.