PRODUCT DESIGNER

Stealth-stage startup | NYC | Full-time

We're building software for a massive industry that still runs on paper, spreadsheets, and guesswork — one that moves hundreds of billions of dollars a year but has never had a real product built for the people actually doing the work. Our app uses AI and a phone camera to do in seconds what used to take hours of paperwork, and to get people paid faster for work they've already done. We're well-funded, backed by top-tier VCs, moving fast, and still small enough that the next few hires will shape what this becomes.

We're not hiring a designer who hands off mockups and waits. We're hiring someone who can go from insight to pixel to shipped feature — fast, and often alone.

What You'll Actually Do

Design and ship real product, end to end — you'll spend as much time in the codebase or in Figma as you need to, whichever gets the thing built and out the door
Sit close to our AI and computer vision work and design the interfaces that make it feel simple, fast, and trustworthy to people who have never used software like this before
Talk to real users constantly — in person, on job sites, over the phone — and let what you learn actually change the product, not just the deck
Prototype fast and rough, then tighten what works. You're comfortable throwing away a day's work if it's wrong
Care as much about how something is built as how it looks — you understand engineering constraints well enough to design within them, or design well enough that engineers want to build what you hand them
Bring order and craft to a product that's moving quickly — systems, patterns, and consistency, without slowing the team down

Who You Are

A builder first — you come from either design or engineering, and you're genuinely capable of doing real work in both. We care about output, not titles
Fluent in modern AI tools and comfortable designing AI-driven, camera-first, or conversational interfaces — this isn't a nice-to-have, it's most of the product
Deeply human-centered. You're the person in the room who keeps asking "but would a real person actually understand this," especially when that person isn't a software engineer or an early adopter
Strong opinions about UX and UI, loosely held. You can defend a decision with real user logic, and you can drop it the moment better evidence shows up
Comfortable with ambiguity, minimal process, and ownership with no guardrails
Scrappy and resourceful — you'd rather ship something imperfect today than something polished in three weeks
Based in or willing to relocate to NYC, and willing to be in-person, including time outside the office with real users

Why This Role?

You'll be one of the first design or design-engineering hires at a company building something genuinely new — not a UI on top of someone else's workflow, but the first real interface an entire industry has ever had. You'll have outsized influence over the product, direct access to the CEO and founders, and real equity in exchange for the risk you're taking today.

If you want a well-defined design system to maintain and a backlog handed to you, this isn't it. If you want to define how an entire underserved industry experiences software for the first time, apply.

Qualifications

Strong Product Design skills with experience owning end-to-end design for digital products, from discovery to launch.
Applied Design Thinking skills, including problem framing, ideation, and iterative prototyping in cross-functional environments.
Competence in User Research and UX Research, including planning studies, conducting interviews or usability tests, and synthesizing insights into actionable design decisions.
Proficiency in Visual Design, including layout, typography, color, and design systems, using modern design tools (e.g., Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD).
Relevant experience designing products in technology, fintech, real estate, PropTech, ClimateTech, or adjacent sectors is beneficial.
Ability to communicate design rationale clearly, collaborate effectively with remote teams, and manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
Bachelor’s degree in Design, HCI, Interaction Design, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Fifth Wall

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Product Designer