Design Engineer

About the role

You will own the end-to-end user experience across our core housing and healthcare products and our public marketing site. This role sits at the junction of design and engineering, where you will establish the foundational design system and define the visual language that powers our platform. You will translate Figma mockups into production-grade, accessible, and high-performance interfaces that feel consistent and polished. You will document UI patterns and drive their adoption so that every team builds with the same clarity and logic. You will implement thoughtful micro-interactions and polished UI states that make workflows feel intuitive and responsive. As the first design engineer, you will shape our frontend process and act as the critical bridge between design intent and shipping code. Ultimately, you will refactor key surfaces to unify the product and marketing experience while setting the standard for quality and consistency.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Partner with design, product, and engineering to develop, maintain, and evolve our design system, ensuring aesthetic cohesion and a scalable front-end architecture.
• Collaborate with PMs and engineers to align on requirements, feasibility, and sequencing, helping shape how features are built from concept through launch.
• Document patterns, promote consistency, and drive adoption of shared systems across teams to reduce redundant work and surface errors.
• Own and define our frontend process and approach as the first design engineer, acting as the bridge between design intent and production code.
• Translate Figma designs into pixel-perfect, accessible, and performant interfaces with a focus on visual consistency and high-quality user experience.
• Design and implement thoughtful UI interactions and micro-interactions that enhance clarity, feedback, and usability across the product.
• Bring high-quality interaction patterns to life, including transitions, states, and responsive behaviors that make the interface feel polished and intuitive.
• Work closely with engineering to ensure components ship with the intended fidelity, reducing visual regressions and post-launch polish work.
• Refactor existing surfaces to implement the design system, improve usability, and unify the visual language across the product and marketing site.
• Attract top-tier talent to join our driven team by demonstrating excellence in craft and ownership.

Requirements

• 2+ years of Javascript, Typescript, and React experience forming a strong foundation for component-based UIs.
• A startup mindset with a strong sense of ownership, urgency, and pragmatism to navigate ambiguity and deliver results.
• Experience working in a fast-paced environment with frequent code deployments and changing priorities.
• Strong understanding of interaction patterns, responsive layout systems, accessibility, usability principles, and visual design best practices.
• Proficiency in Figma to interpret designs, extract assets, and communicate effectively with designers.
• Up-to-date on modern tools and developer workflows such as Cursor and Vercel to streamline development and deployment.
• Ability to solve complex problems independently with minimal guidance while maintaining alignment with product goals.
• Willingness to work in person at our office 4-5 days a week to support collaboration and design alignment.

Nice to have

• Experience with advanced web animations and complex visual effects using libraries such as three.js, webGL, anime.js, or GSAP.
• Experience with mobile design systems to extend consistency across platforms and touchpoints.

Practical notes

• This is a full-time role based in New York City requiring 4-5 days in the office per week.
• The position is eligible for a competitive compensation package along with equity, comprehensive health benefits, parental leave, and professional growth opportunities as detailed in the benefits section.
• No specific visa sponsorship details are provided in the source material.
• The role is part of a fast-scaling startup environment with high expectations and significant opportunity for impact.

Why join

Growth and impact. It's not often that you can get in on the ground floor of a funded unicorn startup that's scaling so fast. That means that instead of following a playbook, you will be writing it. Every single day you will be challenged to identify how we can scale and execute on our mission. You'll learn what works when you succeed and what doesn't when you fail, and the rest of the team will be here to support you at every step.

Benefits

In addition to the growth and impact you will have at EliseAI, we offer competitive salaries along with the following benefits:

• Equity in the company to share in our long-term success.
• Medical, Dental and Vision premiums covered at 100% to support your health and wellbeing.
• Fully paid parental leave to give you the time you need for your family.
• Commuter benefits to help with travel costs.
• 401k benefits to support your long-term financial goals.
• A fitness & home services stipend to cover part of your expenses so you can focus on what matters most.
• A collaborative environment where you can learn from world-class practitioners and build alongside a tight-knit, mission-driven team.

This is your chance to own the user experience from end to end, set the standard for our product design system, and help define the future of housing and healthcare through thoughtful technology. If you are excited by high-impact work, rapid learning, and building polished, accessible interfaces, we encourage you to join us and contribute directly to the next chapter of EliseAI.