Founding Design Engineer

Clera

• $180K — $220K *
Consumer Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience in building and shipping polished product interfaces with a strong portfolio.
  • Deep expertise in React, strict TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS.
  • Prior ownership of a design system or component library in production, evidenced by a public repo or portfolio.
  • Experience defining and enforcing frontend patterns across teams, including with AI-assisted coding tools.
  • Hands-on design/UX engineer mindset, distinct from a product designer role.
  • Familiarity with animation and UI state transitions, such as Framer Motion, is a strong plus.
  • Experience with conversational interfaces or chatbots for B2B users is a plus.

Responsibilities

  • Define and maintain the design token system and component library for cohesive product interfaces.
  • Enforce frontend standards for consistent pull requests using React Query, React Hook Form, and Zod.
  • Own frontend tooling and quality, including Biome configuration and Playwright end-to-end coverage.
  • Translate design intent into component abstractions and lint rules for scalability.
  • Build and iterate on AI-native interface patterns, including streaming responses.
  • Integrate AI coding tools into the frontend workflow to enhance delivery speed and quality.
  • Contribute to constrained UI surfaces like chat-based or CLI-style interfaces.

Benefits

  • Equity participation expected at the founding-team level.
  • On-site work in San Francisco, California, five days a week.
Full Job Description
About the Role

This is a founding-level role at a seed-stage B2B SaaS startup in the pricing intelligence space. You will own the entire frontend design system, component library, and UI coherence layer across a product that ships fast with both human engineers and AI coding agents. This role is the sole bar-raiser for frontend quality and UX standards across the company.
What You'll Do
  • Define and maintain the design token system, component library, and frontend patterns that keep every shipped interface feeling like one cohesive product.
  • Enforce frontend standards so that agent-written and human-written pull requests land consistently by default, using React Query, React Hook Form, and Zod.
  • Own frontend tooling and quality, including Biome configuration, Playwright end-to-end coverage, and frontend performance.
  • Translate design intent into component abstractions and lint rules to preserve coherence at scale.
  • Build and iterate on conversational and AI-native interface patterns, including streaming responses and generative views.
  • Integrate AI coding tools into the frontend workflow to accelerate delivery without sacrificing polish.
  • Contribute to constrained UI surfaces such as chat-based or CLI-style interfaces where applicable.
What We're Looking For
  • 5 or more years building and shipping polished product interfaces, with a strong portfolio demonstrating that quality.
  • Deep expertise in React, strict TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS, with hands-on experience with component primitives such as shadcn/ui and Radix UI.
  • Prior ownership of a design system or component library in production, demonstrated through a public repo, portfolio, or detailed walkthrough.
  • Experience defining and enforcing frontend patterns across a team, including with AI-assisted coding tools such as Claude Code or Cursor.
  • A hands-on design/UX engineer mindset, not a product designer role.
  • Familiarity with animation and UI state transitions (e.g., Framer Motion) to enhance perceived speed and polish is a strong plus.
  • Experience building conversational interfaces or chatbots for B2B users is a plus.
  • Experience with constrained UI spaces such as Slack Block Kit or Microsoft Teams Adaptive Cards is a plus.
  • Authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.
Compensation & Benefits

Base salary range: $180,000 to $220,000 USD annually. Equity participation is expected at this founding-team level. No visa sponsorship is available.
Location

On-site in San Francisco, California, five days per week. Candidates must be based in San Francisco or willing and able to relocate.

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