Founding Design Engineer

About the role

At Ocular AI, we’re passionate about blurring the lines between design and engineering, with an obsessive focus on craftsmanship. We believe ideation, design, and implementation should be seamlessly intertwined to create exceptional user experiences and products that delight. We draw a TON of inspiration from design-focused teams such as Vercel, Linear, Resend.

We’re seeking an experienced Design Engineer (designer who codes or engineer who designs) with a refined aesthetic to help transform our website, product, and brand. In this role, you’ll take full creative ownership, using your broad design skills and technical expertise to craft high-quality interactions, prototypes, and experiences. Code, like Figma, is a tool in your arsenal to solve design challenges and bring bold ideas to life.

This is a high-agency, high-impact role in an early-stage startup, reporting directly to the founders. You’ll have the freedom to experiment, lead design-driven projects, and shape the future of our brand and products.

If you’re someone who thrives in ambiguous environments, loves experimenting, and is excited by the fusion of creativity and development, this is the perfect opportunity to make a meaningful impact.

Compensation

1. Base: 130K to 200K

2. Stock: 0.5% to 1%

3. Location: San Francisco, CA in Person

4. Job Type: Full Time

5. Experience: 3+ years

6. Benefits:

   • 401K

   • Heath Insurance (Dental + Vision)

   • Annual Company Retreats

   • Monthly Mental Health Stipend

   • Work setup stipend (MacBook Pro, Monitor, & Accessories)

What we are looking for

1. 2+ years or equivalent demonstrated experience developing software and UI/UX interfaces.

2. Excellent understanding of Next.js and Vercel, CMS platforms like Contentful, analytics platforms like PostHog, and design tools like Figma and Spline.

3. Skills and understanding on graphic design (layout, typography, color, illustration).

4. You have closely collaborated with folks from marketing and design in previous roles.

5. Open to working in person at our office in SF. We’re an early stage company which means that the role requires working hard and moving quickly. Please ONLY apply if that excites you.

Values

1. Design-Oriented Thinking

• Design isn't just a layer—it’s embedded in our DNA. We believe solutions must be functional, user-friendly, and beautiful.

• You understand that thoughtful design drives impact and that elegance matters as much as functionality.

• Whether crafting a pixel-perfect interface or a seamless backend system, you approach design with intention and care.

  2. Raw, Hardcore Intelligence

• You have an unrelenting drive to solve tough problems, navigating ambiguity with precision and resourcefulness.

• Your attention to detail is unmatched—you can be scrappy when needed but refine both design and engineering to absolute perfection.

• Thriving in a high-agency environment, you embrace complexity and tackle challenges head-on with grit and creativity.

  3. Founder Mentality

• We seek individuals who act like owners, taking initiative without waiting for permission.

• You’re confident in your decisions, yet humble enough to learn from the outcomes—whether they’re successes or lessons in disguise.

• Full responsibility for your work means you're accountable from start to finish, always pushing for excellence.

  4. Customer Obsession

• Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. You have a deep curiosity to understand their needs, challenges, and desires.

• Every decision you make prioritizes delivering real, tangible value for them.

• You think beyond just meeting expectations—you aim to exceed them, creating products that customers love.

  5. Humble and Collaborative

• Humility is a core value here. We believe the best ideas come from diverse perspectives and open collaboration.

• You thrive in a team-oriented environment, valuing the input of others as much as your own contributions.

• We foster a culture where feedback is seen as a tool for growth, not criticism, and everyone is aligned toward collective success.

Read more about the 10 traits we look for here.

About the interview

About the interview

1. Application Review

2. Conversation with Founders (30min)

   • A conversation to discuss your motivations for joining Ocular, explore why you’d be a great fit, and give you a chance to ask us any questions.

3. Technical Screen (1hr)

   • Dive into a real-world engineering problem we face Ocular to showcase your problem-solving skills and approach as an engineer.

4. Product Design Interview (2hr)

   • Collaboratively design a system to assess your ability to think strategically and architect scalable solutions.

5. Work Trial

   • Spend a PAID week with our team, getting hands-on experience and demonstrating what you can build while getting a feel for life at Ocular AI.

About Ocular AI

Ocular AI is the data annotation engine for Generative AI, Computer Vision, and Enterprise AI models.

We help companies transform unstructured, multi-modal data into golden datasets to power generative AI, frontier models, and computer vision.

Ocular Foundry is the most intuitive, data-centric, and fastest platform that lets you label, annotate, version, and deploy your data for training models. It also orchestrates your annotation jobs, improving collaboration with members and annotators.

With Ocular Bolt, shift from humans in the loop to experts in the loop to supercharge your data labeling and annotation projects. Our global expert workforce ensures fast, accurate results—no matter the scale or complexity of your data.

Companies spend huge amounts on training data, but Foundry and Bolt are AI-native tools that lower costs, reduce manual effort, and accelerate high-quality data collection. We’re replacing outdated, clunky, and expensive data software!