Principal Product Designer, Core Experience

About the role

Tin Can is building a safer, simpler way for kids to connect - without smartphones. We're creating screen-free, delightful devices and services that let families call the people who matter most, free from the noise of today's digital world. We're building a bold, authentic, nostalgic, and kinda quirky brand that resonates with folks who want something simpler & better for their kids than the tech-infused lives we're currently living (and who have a sense of humor about it). As we gear up to scale to thousands of families, we're ready to bring on a designer to help make it happen. You will own the end-to-end design of the core family experience, translating the emotional promise of a simpler childhood into intuitive, reliable software interactions that feel as good as they look. You will partner deeply with a tight founding team to define and iterate on the product vision, ensuring that every pixel serves the dual needs of kids and the parents who trust you with their most precious attention. This is a rare opportunity to own a category-defining product from the inside out, shaping not just the next feature but the long-term design narrative of a company that plans to last. You will be measured by your ability to craft clarity from complexity, reduce friction in critical flows, and build enduring systems that make scaling feel effortless. If you are motivated by craft with conviction, you will find a home here where your work will be seen, used, and felt by real families every single day.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Own design across the whole software experience, shaping the core Tin Can experience and the moments that keep the phone ringing for years.
• Run research yourself, talk to families, watch where things break, and translate raw behavior into clear design decisions that move the product forward.
• Shape what we build next, not just how; you are a strategic thought partner to Product, defining priorities and outcomes instead of only executing tasks.
• Build the patterns and design language that help the team, and when appropriate, AI, move fast while meeting our bar for trust and quality.
• Get hands-on: prototype it, write the copy, sit with an engineer until it's right, and refine until the experience feels inevitable.
• Own onboarding and retention end to end, turning that first unboxing into a lasting relationship that feels simple, safe, and worth sharing.
• Collaborate with the Head of Product, Engineering, and Brand so software, hardware, and identity feel like one coherent product rather than a set of one-offs.
• Define and steward the core interaction model, ensuring consistency across features, devices, and future AI enhancements without losing the human touch.
• Advocate for user trust, safety, and quality at every decision point, especially designing for kids and the parents who place that trust in us.
• Set direction and move independently with little oversight, balancing strategic vision with scrappy execution in a fast-starting environment.
• Partner with data and qualitative insights to validate hypotheses, identify friction, and prioritize work that compounds in value over time.
• Establish reusable components and design systems that scale deliberately, guided by clarity, simplicity, and a healthy skepticism of tech for tech's sake.
• Translate ambiguous problems into structured design narratives, aligning stakeholders around outcomes that respect both user needs and business goals.
• Mentor and elevate the broader team by modeling rigorous thinking, calm ownership, and a collaborative approach to hard problems.

Requirements

• 10+ years designing and shipping consumer digital products, with clear examples of owning complex experiences end to end.
• Excellent visual design craft, with a gift for making complex workflows feel simple and intuitive for diverse users.
• A strong systems thinker who builds reusable foundations, not just one-off screens that solve single moments.
• A strategic partner to Product who shapes what we build next, not just how we build it.
• Fluency using AI as a design multiplier, leveraging tools for exploration, prototyping, and production with thoughtful intent.
• Excellent judgment around user trust, safety, and quality, especially when designing for kids and the parents who entrust us with their childhoods.
• Ability to set direction and move independently, with comfort in ambiguity and a bias toward thoughtful action.
• Hands-on and scrappy approach; you would rather build the component, run the test, or prototype the flow yourself than wait on someone else.
• Low-ego and collaborative vibes; you share credit readily, listen deeply, and pitch in on problems that are not officially yours.
• A demonstrated commitment to building experiences that respect attention, protect privacy, and avoid manipulative patterns.
• Comfort working across disciplines, aligning design, engineering, and brand around a shared vision of simplicity and care.
• Strong written and verbal communication, with the ability to make tradeoffs explicit and rally others around a clear north star.
• A bias toward action in a fast-moving startup, balancing long-term design integrity with the need to learn and iterate quickly.

Practical notes

• Hours: Full-time
• Travel: Not mentioned in SOURCE
• Visa: Not mentioned in SOURCE
• Deadlines: Not mentioned in SOURCE