{"id":1245429,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cardinal-founding-design-engineer-cardinal","title":"Founding Design Engineer, Cardinal","company":{"id":3779804,"name":"Cardinal","domain":"trycardinal.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/cardinal-3","size_band":"1-10","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Work at a Startup","truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"junior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":120000,"max":150000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":150000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":1,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Deepgram","optional":false},{"name":"Figma","optional":false},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-25T17:25:23Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-25","last_verified_at":"2026-09-29T15:31:28Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":4,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":4},"description":"Founding Design Engineer, Cardinal\nAbout Cardinal\nCardinal is the AI revenue platform for high-growth companies.\nTeams use Cardinal to build revenue agents from one connected platform. Each agent runs its own motion: research, outreach, follow-up, scheduling, and CRM syncing. Customers define who they're going after, deploy agents, see what's landing and why, and double down on what wins. Every cycle gets sharper than the last.\nFounders and GTM teams tell us Cardinal replaces 7 to 10 separate tools, and for some it's the #1 driver of top-of-funnel.\n$1M ARR run rate in ~2 months\nBacked by Y Combinator\nBuilt by 2x YC founders (Harvard + MIT + Prod)\nWe're moving fast, closing top customers like Mintlify, Deepgram, Luminai, and becoming how the best GTM teams sell.\nThe Role\nThis is not a normal design role, and it's not a normal engineering role either.\nAs our founding design engineer, you'll:\nDefine how Cardinal feels end-to-end, from first impression to daily use\nDesign and build: you ship production UI, not just Figma files\nShape how people build, run, and trust revenue agents: what agents surface, when they ask for input, and how customers steer them\nTurn complex, multi-step workflows into interfaces that feel obvious\nYou'll be the first person who owns the intersection of product, design, and code. Design directly shapes how fast we grow.\nWhat You'll Do\nOwn the core product flows across the platform, from 0 → 1 and beyond\nDesign the core loop (define a list → deploy agents → see what's working → double down) so it feels effortless and gets sharper every cycle\nDesign agent behavior and interaction: how agents show their work, explain decisions, ask for input, and recover when they're wrong\nBuild the UI yourself in React/TypeScript, working directly in the codebase\nCreate a design system that scales as fast as we ship\nNail onboarding and time-to-value (the first five minutes decide everything)\nPrototype fast, test with real users, and iterate weekly\nPitch in on the site, landing pages, and growth surfaces when it matters\nWork shoulder-to-shoulder with the founders and engineers\nWho You Are\nWe're looking for high-slope, high-agency builders who care deeply about product. Where you are today matters less than how fast you're climbing.\nYou might be:\nA former founder\nAn early design engineer at a startup\nSomeone who has designed, built, and shipped products end-to-end\nYou:\nHave sharp product taste and high standards\nDesign and code comfortably, and think in systems\nHave strong opinions on how AI products should feel (and what most get wrong)\nMove fast and don't wait for perfect specs\nCare about how things work, not just how they look\nSimplify complex problems into clear, intuitive UX\nLearn ridiculously fast and get noticeably better every month\nWant to win, and are willing to hustle for it","description_format":"text","description_chars":2835,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":1,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-25T17:25:23Z"}],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":3,"expected_fill_days":23,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:early","comp:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-09-29T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":150000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cardinal-founding-design-engineer-cardinal","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cardinal-founding-design-engineer-cardinal.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-30T00:51:26Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":588,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":4412,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-01T00:00:00Z"}}}