Product Design Lead

INTRODUCTION We value candidates who have significant experience with managing complexity, working independently, and are motivated by hard problems. WHAT WE OFFER - The ability to have real impact on mission-critical workflows - The chance to use state-of-the-art tech to solve novel problems with mission partners - The opportunity to define your role through time as we grow - Competitive salary and equity upside with annual merit refreshes based on impact What You'll Do - Build an AI-Native Design System: Build a scalable, React-based component-driven design system that engineers can and will use by default. - Ensure the design system is directly consumable by AI tools (like Claude Code and Codex) rather than being siloed in Figma. - Empower Engineering: Proactively educate the engineering team by showing them how to leverage the design system to make good, independent UI/UX choices. - Introduce and lead rapid prototyping techniques to quickly gather feedback on early feature ideas before heavy engineering begins. - Help review meaningful frontend changes for design concerns. - Own the Design Process: Establish a new, scalable design process that matches our fast pace and takes design out of the bottleneck. - Position product design as a proactive product owner that iterates on the platform without requiring direct hand-holding. - Establish tight feedback loops with customer strategists and end-users to inform product direction and usability improvements. Qualifications - 3–5+ years of experience designing complex digital products, with a portfolio showing real shipped work, clear problem framing, and strong visual craft - Design & Technical Hybrid: Strong grasp of user experience principles and frontend skills in React; comfortable opening a PR, tweaking TSX/CSS, or collaborating at a technical level with engineers - Interaction Design & IA Skills: Ability to untangle dense, stateful workflows and make them feel obvious and intuitive - Visual & Systems Design Instincts: Keen eye for typography, spacing, hierarchy, and motion that make a product feel cohesive - Cross-Functional Partner: Operates as a true partner to engineering and product, not a downstream service - Bias for Action & Autonomy: Spots design debt and fixes it systematically without waiting for permission; knows how to unblock others by creating scalable systems - Design Tooling: Proficiency in Figma with comfort moving seamlessly between rapid exploration and high-fidelity, polished work - Clear Communicator: Able to articulate design decisions clearly across audiences including customers, engineers, and operational stakeholders Desired Qualifications - AI Tool Fluency: Experience with AI-enabled prototyping and using tools like Claude to multiply output (e.g. translating code to canvas or setting up AI-friendly UI components) - Complex Domains: Experience designing tools for logistics, operations, defense, healthcare, or other dense operational sectors - Startup DNA: Experience working in fast-paced environments with evolving requirements and ambitious, mission-driven goals Location This role is open to candidates based in New York, NY. The base salary range for this role is $180,000-220,000, with the opportunity for significant equity commensurate with a Series A stage opportunity. Starting pay will be based on a number of factors including qualifications, experience, and location. This range reflects base salary only and does not include equity or other compensation components. In accordance with the New York City Pay Transparency Law, the base salary range listed above reflects the compensation for this position for candidates in New York City. This range was established in good faith at the time of posting and represents the full band for this role. ConductorAI is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gende