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Founding Design Engineer
Own Sophia's visual identity and user experience — and bring it to life in code.
About Sophia
Sophia is an end-to-end agentic matchmaker using advanced language, voice, and vision models to deliver deeply tailored introductions.
Role Overview
Lead the design and front-end implementation of Sophia's product experience. You think in systems, craft with care, and can ship your own work — bridging the gap between beautiful design and production code.
About Sophia
- We harness AI to help people forge deeper, more meaningful relationships.
- Sophia was founded by two successful serial entrepreneurs, incubated in their venture studio, with leading high profile founders as advisors and investors.
Role Overview
This role is design-first. You'll own the end-to-end experience — from visual identity and interaction design to the front-end code that delivers it. You'll sit in on real user sessions, feel the friction firsthand, and translate your observations directly into refined, production-ready interfaces.
- Set the visual language and UX standards for a product people trust with their personal lives.
- Be the bridge between how Sophia feels and how it works.
Core Responsibilities
Experience Design & Visual Identity
- Own Sophia's design system — typography, color, spacing, motion, and component library.
- Design and iterate on core user flows: onboarding, matching reveals, member profiles, and ongoing communication.
- Maintain a high bar for craft — every interaction should feel considered and intentional.
Front-End Implementation
- Build your designs in code, primarily in React and TypeScript.
- Collaborate closely with engineers to ensure design intent is preserved all the way to production.
- Own the front-end component library and ensure consistency across the product.
User-Embedded Research & Iteration
- Join live onboarding calls and member sessions to observe behavior firsthand.
- Identify UX friction and turn observations into immediate, high-quality improvements.
- Advocate for the user in every product and engineering discussion.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work directly with founders to align design direction with product vision.
- Partner with engineers on AI-driven flows — voice interfaces, dossier previews, and match reveals.
- Contribute to product decisions with a strong design point of view.
Requirements
Design Skills
- Strong portfolio demonstrating UI/UX design — especially for consumer or high-touch digital products.
- Deep fluency with Figma, including component architecture and design systems.
- Excellent visual sensibility: typography, layout, color, and motion.
- Experience designing for emotional or high-stakes user experiences is a strong plus.
Engineering Skills
- Proficient in React and modern front-end development (TypeScript, CSS, animation libraries).
- Comfortable reading and contributing to a production codebase.
- Enough back-end familiarity to understand API contracts and data shapes.
Who Thrives Here
- A designer who codes — not a coder who designs.
- Highly opinionated about craft, but low-ego about collaboration.
- Curious about people: why they behave as they do, what they feel, what they need.
- Comfortable working in ambiguity and iterating quickly toward clarity.
Engagement
- Full-time role; contract-to-hire or W2 options available.
- Location flexible (Chicago, Miami, or New York preferred; remote possible).