Design Lead

Position Overview

Ajaia is hiring a Design Lead to run discovery and design on client engagements and on Ajaia's own product suite. You will talk to the people who actually do the work, watch what they do rather than only what they say, and turn that into journeys, wireframes, and prototypes an engineer can build from. You will test the design against real users before a line of production code is written, and you will hold the standard for how everything Ajaia ships looks and behaves.

This is a hands-on seat: you do the research and the design yourself, rather than handing off between the two.

Compensation: $90,000 to $210,000 base, depending on experience, plus a performance bonus of up to 100% of base salary.
How we expect you to work

AI use is a core execution requirement at Ajaia, not optional tooling. You will use AI tools daily to move from interview notes to synthesis, from synthesis to wireframe, and from wireframe to something clickable. You are judged on what you keep from that process, not on how much of it AI produced.

Staying current with new design and prototyping tools is part of the job, and so is knowing when a shortcut needs your hand back on it before a user ever sees it.
What you will do

• Run discovery on client engagements: interview the people doing the work, watch them do it, and find the gap between what they say and what they actually do.
• Talk to users of Ajaia's own products the same way. The product suite is not exempt from the same rigor client work gets.
• Synthesize findings into what people actually need, stated separately from what they asked for, with the evidence for each.
• Design the solution: user journeys, wireframes, and prototypes that an engineer can build from without guessing.
• Decide where a human has to sign off inside a workflow, and design that checkpoint into the product rather than bolting it on afterward.
• Test designs with real users before code exists, not after.
• Push back on a stakeholder's feature list when the evidence points somewhere else, and explain why in terms they can act on.
• Own the design standard across Ajaia's product suite so a designer joining engagement three does not have to reinvent decisions made on engagement one.
• Prototype with AI tools as a default, not a novelty. Know when the AI-native path saves real time and when it produces something you have to rebuild by hand anyway.
• Hand off design work in a state an engineer can actually start from, and stay involved enough during the build to catch it when implementation drifts from the intent.

Requirements

• Runs discovery yourself: interviews, usability testing, and reading behavioral data.
• Moves from synthesis to a working prototype fast.
• Designs the human checkpoints into a workflow rather than bolting them on later.
• Comfortable holding a room when the evidence points somewhere a stakeholder does not expect.
• AI fluent: uses AI daily to research, synthesize, and prototype, and can tell good output from slop.
• Comfortable working directly alongside engineers through build.
• No minimum years required. We hire on the work.
• On-site in New York, with client-site travel for discovery work.
• A bachelor's degree is preferred and is not a requirement.

Nice to have

• A public portfolio or case studies we can look at before we meet.
• Experience designing AI-native workflows, including where a human checkpoint belongs.
• Consulting, agency, or professional services experience with concurrent clients.
• Comfort with lightweight front-end implementation.

Benefits

Competitive benefits.