Staff Designer, Rapid Prototyping

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Canada.

📋 Description

• Develop functional prototypes and product experiments directly within the Thunderbolt codebase.

• Convert vague product concepts, user workflows, partner insights, and enterprise requirements into clear, user-friendly product experiences.

• Establish interaction patterns for AI-driven chat, search, research, workflow automation, knowledge retrieval, and enterprise management.

• Utilize AI-assisted development tools to expedite prototyping and implementation while ensuring quality, usability, security, accessibility, and maintainability.

• Collaborate with product, design, engineering, enterprise-facing teams, contractors, and external contributors to investigate, validate, and enhance product direction.

• Contribute high-quality front-end code where applicable.

• Assess whether prototypes should be discarded, refined, generalized, or transitioned into production.

• Enhance usability, accessibility, consistency, and refinement of the Thunderbolt user experience.

• Create reusable components, interface patterns, or elements for the design system.

• Provide a user-centered viewpoint in technical and product discussions regarding AI behavior, trust, transparency, permissions, or workflow clarity.

• Design for enterprise requirements including data sensitivity, user control, administrative visibility, auditability, and security expectations.

• Assist Thunderbolt, an open-source AI client for organizations, in evolving from initial workflows to clear, reliable, enterprise-ready product experiences.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 10 years of relevant experience in design engineering, front-end engineering, UX engineering, product design with substantial technical implementation experience, or a closely related field, showcasing leadership and impact beyond individual contributions.

• Proficient front-end engineering skills, including expertise with modern JavaScript or TypeScript, component-based frameworks, and directly building prototypes or production features within an application codebase.

• Strong judgment in product and interaction design, encompassing usability, accessibility, information architecture, workflow design, and product refinement.

• Experience in designing, prototyping, or creating AI-enabled product experiences, such as chat, search, research tools, agents, automation, knowledge interfaces, or workflow tools where user trust, context, output quality, and human oversight are central to the experience.

• Ability to translate ambiguous product concepts into practical workflows, prototypes, and delivered product experiences, with the insight to balance speed, quality, maintainability, learning, and product risk.

• Proven experience in providing technical or product leadership through mentoring, cross-functional coordination, reusable patterns, project ownership, or influence that extends beyond individual deliverables.

• Practical understanding of AI, privacy, security, and regulatory considerations, including transparency, user control, permissions, data management, and trust; familiarity with frameworks such as the EU AI Act, Cyber Resilience Act, HIPAA, or similar requirements.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with product managers, designers, engineers, and other cross-functional stakeholders.

• A portfolio, case studies, delivered work, or examples showcasing design-to-code execution, interactive prototypes, or product experience enhancements.

• Candidates must reside in Canada and possess permanent work authorization; visa sponsorship is not available.

🏝️ Benefits

• Fully remote work & schedule flexibility

• Company-provided laptop

• Annual bonus program

• Monthly remote work stipend

• Annual professional development stipend

• Access to Coursera learning platform

• Industry conferences

• Company all-hands and team gatherings

• 24 days PTO per year (prorated)

• Your birthday

• Year-end company shutdown

• 9 wellbeing days

• Public holidays

• Other paid leave

• Quarterly wellbeing stipend for personal/family activities

• RRSP contributions

• Health, dental, & vision insurance

• Disability insurance

• Life insurance

• Employee assistance program

• Paid parental leave

• Paid sick days