Founding designer
Own the visual + interaction system, end-to-end. The brand-and-marketing system is yours from here.
You'll inherit the brand-and-marketing system shipped in PR #755 (the bold-type design constitution at /brand) and run with it.
What you'll do
- Own the visual system across product, marketing, and brand. Type, color, shape, motion, photography rules — yours.
- Ship product UI in the editor: timelines, beat boards, revision gutters, paywall sheets, the AI-refused surface (the brand's most important moment).
- Direct the photography brief, the campaign film, the print pieces (sticker pack, posters, manuscript-as-merch).
- Pair with Isabella weekly and the founding engineer daily.
What we want
- Senior product designer with brand-system fluency. Linear / Vercel / Mercury / Loom-grade systems thinking.
- Comfortable in code (Figma → React isn't always a handoff; sometimes it's just an edit).
- Has shipped a design system end-to-end — not "made a Figma library," but "wrote the rules, enforced them in product, and watched a team of three become twelve without the system breaking."
- You like type. You set type at 144pt without flinching.
What we don't want
- Pure brand designers without product chops. The product surfaces are most of the job.
- Anyone who thinks AI-generated illustration is fine. Vow IV applies inward.
- 10x designer self-positioning.
Comp
$140k–$180k base, 1.0–2.0% equity (4-year vest, 1-year cliff, 83(b)), full health / dental / vision, $3k home-office stipend, unlimited PTO with a 3-week minimum.
Location
Remote. We meet quarterly.
Apply
Email isabella@tryarqo.com. Subject: "Founding designer · {{your name}}". Include:
1. A link to one product you've shipped that you're proudest of, and one paragraph on what about it works. 2. One paragraph on a system rule you've held against pressure — when stakeholders wanted an exception and you said no. 3. Optional: redesign one screen of your current Arqo or a similar tool. Not a full case study, just a thumb-on-the-scale before/after.