Founding Designer

Founding Designer

Location

San Francisco, CA. On site. Full time.

About the job

Advantra is partnering with an early stage productivity software startup in San Francisco to hire a Founding Designer to build and shape design across the product.

About the role

You will design experiences across web, desktop, and mobile apps, emails, and marketing assets. You will define design patterns, simplify user journeys, and build systems that enable fast, consistent shipping. You will work closely with founders to iterate on features, improve onboarding, activation, and education flows, and create brand visuals, landing pages, and blog layouts.

Responsibilities

Design product experiences from concept to pixel-perfect execution across multiple platforms.

Research and understand customer problems to create elegant solutions.

Build design patterns to organize information and improve usability.

Simplify complex user journeys and maintain product simplicity.

Iterate quickly on onboarding, activation, and education experiments.

Establish design systems that support consistent and fast shipping.

Create and refine messaging, brand visuals, and marketing assets.

Collaborate with founders to shape product direction and strategy.

Core requirements

3+ years experience in product design with shipped work.

Portfolio demonstrating end-to-end design execution across multiple platforms.

Experience designing web and mobile user interfaces.

Strong visual design skills and attention to detail.

Experience creating design systems or reusable components.

Ability to simplify complex workflows for users.

Experience iterating quickly based on user feedback.

Strong collaboration skills with product and engineering teams.

Ability to work on-site in San Francisco.

Comfort working in a fast-paced, early stage startup environment.

Nice to have

Experience with front-end technologies or coding knowledge.

Familiarity with product analytics and user testing tools.

Experience with marketing and brand design.

Prior experience as a first or early design hire.

Knowledge of accessibility and inclusive design practices.

Compensation

Competitive base plus equity.

How to apply

Email careers@theadvantra.com with links to shipped work and a short note on what you owned. Company name shared after the intro.

About Us

Advantra-Upstart Crew is a search program inside Advantra Consulting. We partner with early stage and high growth startups to hire the top 2% in Tech and GTM. We run end to end searches, from single role headhunts to full team build outs, using domain experts and a vetted network to deliver tight shortlists. We stay close to founders and candidates so the relationship lasts beyond the first hire.