Founding Product Designer

About the Role

This is a founding-level design role at a fast-growing, Y Combinator-backed startup (S25 cohort) building an AI-powered platform for motion design and animation creation. The company has achieved remarkable early traction — hundreds of thousands of users and rapidly growing revenue — and is now looking for a driven, entrepreneurial designer to shape the entire product experience from the ground up.

You'll work directly with the founding team and engineering in Berlin, owning design end-to-end: from strategy and research to pixel-perfect execution. This role carries genuine founder-level influence — your design decisions will directly drive product adoption and growth.

What You'll Do

• Partner closely with engineering to design intuitive, AI-native experiences that make professional animation creation accessible to a broad audience.

• Craft interfaces that strike the right balance between simplicity and power — hiding complexity while giving users the control they need.

• Run continuous user interviews and usability tests to surface new opportunities and validate design decisions.

• Own the full design lifecycle: from early concepts and prototypes through to scalable design systems and pixel-perfect, production-ready UI.

• Drive growth through onboarding improvements, design experiments, and conversion optimisation.

• Shape go-to-market messaging, visuals, and brand communication that resonate with target users.

What We're Looking For

Required:

• 5+ years of product design experience, ideally with AI-powered or otherwise complex software interfaces.

• Proficiency in Figma and strong prototyping skills.

• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain scalable design systems.

• A portfolio showcasing end-to-end product design — from concept to launch — including design systems and polished UI.

• Experience partnering with engineering teams and contributing to product strategy, not just execution.

• Experience conducting user research (interviews, usability testing) and translating insights into concrete design decisions.

• Experience designing onboarding flows and running experiments to improve activation and conversion metrics.

• Ability to work autonomously in a fast-paced, ambiguous startup environment — shipping, iterating, and measuring UX impact.

• Based in Berlin or willing to relocate — this role is on-site.

Nice to have:

• Background designing tools for creative professionals (video, animation, motion graphics, or similar).

• Experience at an early-stage startup or in a founding designer capacity.

Visa sponsorship: Not available. Candidates must already have the right to work in Germany.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: €80,000 – €160,000 per year, depending on experience.

• Founder-level equity and ownership over the design function.

• High-impact role with direct influence on product direction and company growth.

Location

This is a fully on-site role based in Berlin, Germany. Candidates must be located in Berlin or willing to relocate. Remote work is not available for this position.