Product Designer

We're building the AI agents that will rewire the $8.1T commerce economy.You'll own the conversational systems that bridge human intent with our probabilistic AI ShopGraph. You will deconstruct the trust problem and design the new physics of AI-native interaction. This is not a Figma-first playbook role.The Stack & Systems You'll Work WithTable Stakes (Required Fluency)AI Product Design: Demonstrable experience designing for probabilistic, AI-native systems (not just GUI).Systems Thinking: You design systems, not just screens. You must be able to architect for non-determinism, latency, and recovery.Interaction/Conversation Design: Fluency in designing dialogue acts, repair loops, and multi-modal interactions.Prototyping: Rapid prototyping in the native medium (e.g., text prompts, voice, or code-based tools), not just Figma.Core Craft: Exceptional fundamentals in information architecture, user research, and interaction design.Differentiation Skills (Preferred, Not Required)Experience designing evaluation frameworks for AI quality.Hands-on experience with LLMs (e.g., prompt engineering, fine-tuning).Experience with multi-modal design (voice, text, and GUI).Technical literacy (e.g., ability to read APIs, understand system diagrams).The Constraints You'll NavigateNon-Determinism: The system's output is probabilistic. Your design must account for this as the default state, not an edge case.Latency: Conversational AI has a high, multi-stage latency floor. Your design must work with this, not against it.Token & Cost Budgets: Inference has a real-time cost. Your design decisions must be optimized for a cost per successful outcome.Why This Matters (The Glow)The commerce economy is being rewired by AI agents. This creates a fundamental Crisis of Confidence, as users are forced to trust black-box systems. The companies that win will be those that built the truth layer first.Demand.io is building that truth layer. Our mission is to restore humanity to commerce by creating the definitive knowledge graph ShopGraph and the intelligent agents that run on it SimplyCodes, Product.ai.We are a profitable, founder-led core team of ~30 supported by a ~100-person global staff. We facilitate over $1B in ecommerce transactions annually. We have no VC pressure, no politics, and no bullshit. We operate as a tight Special Forces unit running on our proprietary AI-native OS (AIOS), not a traditional corporate hierarchy.How We Work (The AIOS Mandate)This is not a traditional company. Our founder designed a new, proprietary system for Context Engineering from first principles.We run on AIOS (AI Operating System), our internal knowledge graph and cognitive acceleration system. Your work is not just to design; it is to participate in this advanced cognitive system. This means you will:Architect Grounding Files: You will codify your design frameworks, interaction policies, and component logic into structured markdown. This is how you teach our AI agents and compound your knowledge.Orchestrate AI Systems: You will act as a conductor, guiding AI to generate, test, and refine outcomes based on the context you've engineered.Compound the OS: Every system you ship and every framework you codify makes our core OS smarter, creating compounding leverage for the entire company.Your Mission (Problems to be Owned)You will own the end-to-end human-AI relationship for our agentic products. You are not designing a GUI; you are designing the character, policies, and interaction physics of an intelligent system.You will own the Agent's Constitution. You will design the agent's core personality, its voice (the static character), and its tone (the dynamic controller that modulates personality based on context, e.g., user frustration or task stakes).You will deconstruct the black-box trust problem. You will architect for Calibrated Reliance, not blind trust. This means designing the systems for Epistemic Honesty—how our agent proves its work, cites its sources, and, most importantly, communicates calibrated uncertainty (e.g., I am 70% confident...) to build long-term trust.You will design the new Interaction Protocols. You will architect the dialogue acts that translate ambiguous human language into deterministic machine requests (Function Calling). This includes designing intentional friction—the circuit breakers and confirmation gates required to manage risk in high-stakes agentic actions.You will architect the Evaluation Framework. Your primary specification is not a Figma file; it is the Eval. You will own the definition of good, creating the evaluation frameworks, metrics, and AI Constitution that our engineers build against. Your authority will come from owning this definition of quality.You’ll partner directly with Michael Quoc (CEO) and our core AI/Eng team on all architectural decisions.Who You AreThis role is for a First-Principles Trust Architect who:Reasons from constraints, not resources. You deconstruct problems to their immutable physics (e.g., AI is probabilistic, LLMs are stateless) before proposing solutions. You reject reasoning by analogy.Thrives in ambiguity. You don't need a playbook. A 0-to-1 probabilistic system is not stressful; it's energizing. You see the rupture of determinism as a new medium to master.Is a Designer-Engineer hybrid. You are not afraid of the technical layer. You see AI constitutions, token budgets, and containment protocols as your new design materials.Designs systems, not screens. You are obsessed with how a system behaves, not just how it looks. You’d rather architect a graceful failure loop than perfect a pixel.Owns outcomes, not tasks. You are psychologically allergic to ticket-taking. You want to be held accountable for the user's trust and the agent's reliability, not for delivering a wireframe.Moves fast with high conviction. You make reversible decisions quickly and irreversible decisions carefully. You don't need consensus; you need clarity.The Anti-ProfileYou'll Hate This Role If...Your primary craft is delivering pixel-perfect Figma files. The GUI is an optional, thin layer here. Your core deliverables will be evaluation frameworks and policy documents.You need an existing playbook for everything. We are inventing the playbook. You will be operating in 100% ambiguity.You want to manage or coordinate. This is a builder role, not a manager role. You’ll be in the system daily, designing, testing, and shipping.You’re unwilling to learn the technical layer. You must be hungry to understand how the models, data, and context architecture actually work.You value prestige over impact. We're not FAANG. We don't have the brand or the perks. We have mission, autonomy, and ownership.What You BringAt Demand.io, resumes, pedigree, and credentials are irrelevant. We filter for your cognitive identity and your proof-work, not your resume.Minimum (Hard Filter)3-8+ years shipping world-class, systems-level product design.A portfolio that demonstrates deep systems thinking, not just visual craft. We need to see your why (tradeoffs, rationale, process) not just your what (pixels).Demonstrable experience designing for complex, ambiguous problem spaces.Exceptional written communication (memos, specs, documentation).Based in or willing to relocate to Santa Monica, CA.Preferred (Signals of 10x)Experience designing for AI-native or conversational products (CUI/VUI).Hands-on experience with LLMs (e.g., prompt engineering, building simple agents).Technical literacy (e.g., ability to read/write basic Python/JS, understand APIs).Early-stage startup experience (< people).A note on AI requirements:We're inventing a new discipline. We don't expect you to be a 10-year expert in a 2-year-old field. We hire for a steep trajectory: 70% excellence in your core craft (systems design), 20% demonstrated AI experimentation, and 10% raw learning velocity. We will provide the domain; you must provide the hunger.A note on the Preferred list:If you don't check every box but you're a first-principles thinker with 10x potential, we want to hear from you.The ContractWe run a high-trust partnership, built on radical transparency.CompensationYear 1 Cash Comp: $260,000 - $420,000 (based on 75th-90th percentile market data, experience, and domain expertise)Equity: 20-75 basis points (0.20% - 0.75% of the company)Partners Program (PSB): Our profit-sharing bonus model provides a ~50-100%+ cash uplift above market for most roles. This is our mechanism for founder-level alignment.Location & Work ModelHQ: Santa Monica, CAWork Model: We operate 5 days in-office at our Santa Monica HQ to maximize collaborative velocity, with hybrid flexibility for deep work.Relocation: We support relocation to LA for the right candidate.Benefits & PerksHealth, Dental, Vision: We cover 100% of premiums for you and all dependents.Paid Lunch Daily: We eat together as aE team.Unlimited PTO: We trust you to manage your time and energy.Our Application ProcessWe run a high-signal, diagnostic-first process that respects your time and craft. We've abolished 'Easy Apply' and generic recruiter screens.We review all diagnostics within 48 hours. The entire process, from L1 submission to offer, can take as little as 1-2 weeks for the right candidate. Velocity is a cultural signal.To begin, please visit our careers hub.→ Start Your ApplicationAmplify This SignalFollow our Company Page on LinkedIn to see more roles and content.Connect with Michael Quoc (CEO) if this mission resonates with you.(Connecting with us signals your genuine interest in our mission and what we're building. We prioritize candidates based on mission alignment.) #J-18808-Ljbffr