Founding Design Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Sep 28, 2026. First seen by Alion on May 14, 2026. Virio scores B on the Alion truth index.
Design Engineer
Location: San Francisco (in-person, in-office, full-time ONLY)
Compensation: $150k-$250k base + top of market equity
About Virio
Virio is solving an unsolved problem: how do you produce perfect content? The best human strategist researches the space, finds the angle, and knows your goals and constraints - but they're capped by the hours in a day and one human career's worth of expertise. An agent isn't.
But reasoning this good is only as valuable as it is legible. Fortune 500 executives and founders running $100M+ companies won't put their name on content they can't see, steer, and trust - so the product has to be an interactive surface where they can watch the agents work, shape the strategy, and feel why each choice was made. The interface is what gives companies the trust to deploy non-deterministic content across hundreds of employees.
We're backed by operators from LinkedIn, YouTube, HubSpot, Rippling, and Google. The team is almost 100% ex-founders and VCs from Yale, UC Berkeley, Stripe, and more. And we've consecutively added $1M ARR/mo because everyone and their co-founder wants what we're selling.
This problem doesn't have a playbook. We're looking for a Design Engineer to own the interface end to end - to design and implement the canvas through which complex agent reasoning becomes something humans can see, steer, and trust.
What You'll Do
Design generative interfaces that rethink what's possible-not incremental tweaks, but genuinely imaginative approaches to how people interact with AI-driven products
Lead with product intuition: understand what users need before they ask, and imagine interfaces that make complex interactions feel natural and delightful
Own features end-to-end: from design concept through implementation to launch-you're the keeper of the vision through every stage
Build frontend components and systems that scale: write clean, maintainable code that doesn't constrain future ambition
Collaborate seamlessly with engineers and users: make design and implementation work together, not against each other
Read between the lines to imagine 10x better solutions: your taste and judgment are core to what we ship
Contribute to the core product roadmap and help define what gets built next
What Success Looks Like
You ship interfaces that users don't just use-they choose to use, and they're surprised by how natural they feel
You identify friction in the product experience and solve it with imaginative design and thoughtful implementation
You balance speed with quality-you ship fast without compromising on the details that matter
Your code is clean and intentional; your design pushes thinking forward while remaining accessible
You take full ownership-you don't wait for someone else to solve problems you see
Traits That Thrive at Virio
High agency & self-direction - Acts without waiting for requirements or detailed instructions
Small-team intensity comfort - Comfortable working intensely and closely with a small, high-output team
Unorthodox problem solving - Sees non-obvious paths forward and challenges conventional approaches
Quality-driven execution - Detail-oriented with high standards for correctness and quality
Low ego & accountability - Takes full ownership and accountability for outcomes
Benefits
Competitive total compensation aligned to impact and ownership
Meaningful equity upside as part of the founding team
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
401(k) plan
All working meals covered
Relocation support for San Francisco
Company-wide annual off-site
Direct access to founders and leadership
High ownership, high trust, and fast career progression alongside world-class client partners
In-person culture with deep commitment to excellence
This is a full-time, on-site role based in San Francisco with the team coming in 6 days/week. We do not offer hybrid or remote positions.