Salary / Hourly Rate: $120,000 - $180,000 per year
Benefits: In-person SF team; high ownership on a 5-person, seed-stage startup.,Meaningful equity; fast path to scope as the design/function owner.
Role Information
Role Overview: N/A
Responsibilities: Lead end-to-end product discovery → UX/UI → frontend implementation for Sonia’s iOS app (voice + chat)., Prototype flows for therapy sessions, in-between-session engagement, and progress tracking; iterate weekly from user studies + data., Create and maintain a design system and accessibility standards; set quality bars for motion, micro-interactions, and readability in emotionally charged moments., Partner with founders + research to translate findings into product (e.g., changes that improve GAD-7 movement, adherence, safety triggers)., Ship pragmatically: instrument UX, review outcomes, and polish high-leverage surfaces first.
Qualifications: Design + Frontend hybrid: strong portfolio and implementation (Swift/SwiftUI or equivalent FE)., Ability to run lightweight user tests, synthesize insights, and iterate quickly., Experience designing mobile interactions for complex, stateful conversations (voice preferred)., Bonus: familiarity with LLM/AI product UX, safety affordances, or digital mental-health., HUGE BONUS: Voice interaction design; UX for sensitive contexts (mental health); metrics literacy around GAD-7/PHQ-9.
Minimum Requirements: Has worked at a high-growth startup and thrived in a fast-moving, high-stakes environment.,Attended a top-tier university or participated in entrepreneurship accelerators / elite programs, demonstrating high agency and ambition.,In-person, San Francisco (team works on-site). (From founder email + YC page),Portfolio showing shipped mobile work and hands-on build ownership.
Screening Questions: Please share your portfolio:,(Optional Video). This step is completely optional. If you’d like, record a short 2–3 minute video introducing yourself and your experience — or share a recording of your interview with the recruiter if that’s easier. You can upload the link via Loom or Google Drive. This just helps us get to know you better, but there’s no pressure if you’d prefer to skip it.
Company Information
About Company: N/A
Culture: N/A
Additional Information
Interview Process: Step 1: Vibe check call — 15 minsQuick introduction, alignment on mission and role, confirm in-person SF and work-auth fit.Step 2: Take-home exercise — ~4 hoursSmall UX/FE task tailored to our app (voice + chat). Show how you scope, make trade-offs, and move from rough concept → testable prototype. Include brief notes on decisions and what you’d test next.Step 3: Portfolio & design review — 30–45 minsWalk us through two shipped, end-to-end projects (discovery → design → build). Focus on user outcomes, what changed after launch, and how you used data or research to iterate.Step 4: In-person trial in SF — 1–2 days (paid)Work on a scoped feature with the team. We’ll pair on product discovery, flows (SwiftUI or equivalent), polish, and instrumentation. We look for clarity, speed, taste, communication, and how you reason about safety and measurable outcomes.Step 5: OfferWe’ll debrief quickly, share references as needed, and discuss compensation/equity within the YC-listed range for this role.
Day to day: Design and ship Sonia’s iOS experience end to end: talk to users (“clients”), review app interaction data, sketch and prototype flows for voice and chat sessions, build SwiftUI edits, and instrument what you ship so we can see what changes for users. You’ll alternate between quick product discovery, Figma, and hands-on implementation, iterating weekly with founders. The goal of each cycle is a measurable improvement in user experience and, over time, in validated outcomes like GAD-7, while maintaining safety throughout the experience.
Team: You’ll work directly with the three founders on a five-person, SF-based team; collaboration is in person. Expect tight feedback loops with the AI and research functions, with high ownership over what to build, how it should feel, and the first implementation.
Growth: As one of the first design/FE hires, you’ll define the design system, set quality bars, and establish product practices that future teammates will follow. There’s fast scope growth into leading multi-month initiatives (e.g., new session modalities, adherence features, evaluation dashboards) and, as the team scales, the opportunity to hire and mentor designers/engineers while shaping processes that keep Sonia outcome-focused and safe.
Ideal Candidate Profile: We’re looking for a design–engineering hybrid who owns discovery → UX/UI → implementation for our iOS app, iterates quickly with the founders in person in San Francisco, and cares deeply about measurable outcomes and safety.What makes you a strong fit • You’ve shipped mobile product end-to-end (portfolio shows discovery, design, and hands-on build), ideally in Swift/SwiftUI. • You can design stateful conversational experiences (voice + chat) and instrument what you ship to learn quickly. • You use research and data to decide—e.g., you can explain how you’d evaluate changes with validated measures like GAD-7, not just engagement metrics. • You thrive on small-team pace and high ownership, collaborating daily with founders in person in SF. • You treat safety as a product feature and can describe guardrails you’ve designed for sensitive contexts. Benchmark profile (from founders) • Design: young, hungry, ideally with some engineering skills or interest; new-grad OK. • https://x.com/floguo (design engineer; strong product taste + build skills).Signals we’re likely to pass • Only visual polish with no shipped, user-validated work. • Can’t work in person in San Francisco. • No experience designing or building for voice/chat or other safety-critical UX.Why this is exciting • Mission with evidence: Sonia is building a safe AI therapist (voice + text) and publicly emphasizes outcomes; you’ll shape how the app looks, feels, and measures progress from day one.
Lead Product Development: Spearhead end-to-end UX/UI design and frontend implementation for an iOS app, focusing on therapy sessions, engagement, and progress tracking.
Design System Expertise: Establish and maintain a robust design system with accessibility standards, focusing on motion, micro-interactions, and readability.
Prototype and Iterate: Create and refine prototypes weekly based on user studies and data to improve clinical outcomes like GAD-7 scores.
Collaborative Innovation: ...
Responsibilities
Lead end-to-end product discovery → UX/UI → frontend implementation for Sonia’s iOS app (voice + chat).
Prototype flows for therapy sessions, in-between-session engagement, and progress tracking; iterate weekly from user studies + data.
Create and maintain a design system and accessibility standards; set quality bars for motion, micro-interactions, and readability in emotionally charged moments.
Partner with founders + research to translate findings into product (e.g., changes that improve GAD-7 movement, adherence, safety triggers).
Design + Frontend hybrid: strong portfolio and implementation (Swift/SwiftUI or equivalent FE).
Ability to run lightweight user tests, synthesize insights, and iterate quickly.
Experience designing mobile interactions for complex, stateful conversations (voice preferred).
Bonus: familiarity with LLM/AI product UX, safety affordances, or digital mental-health.
HUGE BONUS: Voice interaction design; UX for sensitive contexts (mental health); metrics literacy around GAD-7/PHQ-9.
Ideal Candidate
We’re looking for a design–engineering hybrid who owns discovery → UX/UI → implementation for our iOS app, iterates quickly with the founders in person in San Francisco, and cares deeply about measurable outcomes and safety.
What makes you a strong fit
• You’ve shipped mobile product end-to-end (portfolio shows discovery, design, and hands-on build), ideally in Swift/SwiftUI.
• You can design stateful conversational experiences (voice + chat) and instrument what you ship to learn quickly.
• You use research and data to decide—e.g., you can explain how you’d evaluate changes with validated measures like GAD-7, not just engagement metrics.
• You thrive on small-team pace and high ownership, collaborating daily with founders in person in SF.
• You treat safety as a product feature and can describe guardrails you’ve designed for sensitive contexts.
Benchmark profile (from founders)
• Design: young, hungry, ideally with some engineering skills or interest; new-grad OK.
• Only visual polish with no shipped, user-validated work.
• Can’t work in person in San Francisco.
• No experience designing or building for voice/chat or other safety-critical UX.
Why this is exciting
• Mission with evidence: Sonia is building a safe AI therapist (voice + text) and publicly emphasizes outcomes; you’ll shape how the app looks, feels, and measures progress from day one.
Must-Have Requirements
Has worked at a high-growth startup and thrived in a fast-moving, high-stakes environment.
Attended a top-tier university or participated in entrepreneurship accelerators / elite programs, demonstrating high agency and ambition.
In-person, San Francisco (team works on-site). (From founder email + YC page)
Portfolio showing shipped mobile work and hands-on build ownership.
Screening Questions
1. Please share your portfolio:
2. (Optional Video). This step is completely optional. If you’d like, record a short 2–3 minute video introducing yourself and your experience — or share a recording of your interview with the recruiter if that’s easier. You can upload the link via Loom or Google Drive. This just helps us get to know you better, but there’s no pressure if you’d prefer to skip it.
Sonia’s mission is to build a safe AI therapist that can match the effectiveness of a top (99th-percentile) human therapist and make high-quality mental-health support available to anyone. The product conducts complete therapy sessions via voice and text in a mobile app and draws on structured approaches such as CBT alongside short, timely check-ins.
After a year of exploring different architectures and form factors, the team reports a recent breakthrough and early evidence of significant clinical impact, including measurable reductions in GAD-7 anxiety scores after roughly two weeks of use. Sonia frames progress and product decisions around outcomes and safety, not just engagement.
The company publicly emphasizes a “drug-like” development mindset—rigorous evaluation, safeguards, and continuous testing as they scale access—reflecting a commitment to real-world efficacy and responsible deployment.
Company Culture
Sonia operates with a builder-scientist culture: small team, high ownership, and rapid iteration paired with rigorous safety and evaluation. Everyone is expected to move ideas from prototype to production quickly while holding a high bar for clinical quality and user protection.
The team is outcome-first. Success is defined by improvements in validated mental-health measures (like GAD-7) and by user well-being, not by vanity metrics. Experiments are instrumented, results are measured, and learning cycles are fast.
Safety is treated as a product feature. Guardrails and review processes are built into the experience from the start, consistent with the company’s public stance that developing an AI therapist should follow a process closer to drug development than typical consumer app iteration.
The environment favors kindness, intensity, and clear thinking. Team members collaborate closely with founders, talk to users, and ship high-quality work that directly advances access to effective mental-health support. Sonia is San-Francisco-based and works together in person, per the founders’ note you shared; their open roles are listed for San Francisco.
Benefits
Retirement/401k
Health Insurance
Vision Insurance
Dental Insurance
In-person SF team; high ownership on a 5-person, seed-stage startup.
Meaningful equity; fast path to scope as the design/function owner.
Relocation & Sponsorship
Relocation Assistance
Visa Sponsorship
What you can expect
Day to Day
Design and ship Sonia’s iOS experience end to end: talk to users (“clients”), review app interaction data, sketch and prototype flows for voice and chat sessions, build SwiftUI edits, and instrument what you ship so we can see what changes for users. You’ll alternate between quick product discovery, Figma, and hands-on implementation, iterating weekly with founders. The goal of each cycle is a measurable improvement in user experience and, over time, in validated outcomes like GAD-7, while maintaining safety throughout the experience.
Team
You’ll work directly with the three founders on a five-person, SF-based team; collaboration is in person. Expect tight feedback loops with the AI and research functions, with high ownership over what to build, how it should feel, and the first implementation.
Growth
As one of the first design/FE hires, you’ll define the design system, set quality bars, and establish product practices that future teammates will follow. There’s fast scope growth into leading multi-month initiatives (e.g., new session modalities, adherence features, evaluation dashboards) and, as the team scales, the opportunity to hire and mentor designers/engineers while shaping processes that keep Sonia outcome-focused and safe.
Interview Process
Step 1: Vibe check call — 15 mins
Quick introduction, alignment on mission and role, confirm in-person SF and work-auth fit.
Step 2: Take-home exercise — ~4 hours
Small UX/FE task tailored to our app (voice + chat). Show how you scope, make trade-offs, and move from rough concept → testable prototype. Include brief notes on decisions and what you’d test next.
Step 3: Portfolio & design review — 30–45 mins
Walk us through two shipped, end-to-end projects (discovery → design → build). Focus on user outcomes, what changed after launch, and how you used data or research to iterate.
Step 4: In-person trial in SF — 1–2 days (paid)
Work on a scoped feature with the team. We’ll pair on product discovery, flows (SwiftUI or equivalent), polish, and instrumentation. We look for clarity, speed, taste, communication, and how you reason about safety and measurable outcomes.
Step 5: Offer
We’ll debrief quickly, share references as needed, and discuss compensation/equity within the YC-listed range for this role.
Companies to Source From
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Additional Information
Additional Information
Overview
Sonia is building a safe AI therapist designed to be as effective as a top (99th-percentile) human therapist and to make high-quality mental-health support broadly accessible. The product delivers full therapy sessions by voice and by text in an iOS app, and the team reports early GAD-7 anxiety-score reductions after ~2 weeks of use. Sonia treats safety and clinical efficacy as first-class product requirements.
The company
Seed-stage, ~5-person team based in person in San Francisco (YC W24). The founders are hands-on and move quickly from prototype to production, with tight loops between design, engineering, and research. Sonia has raised ~$3.5M from YC, Moonfire, and notable angels (e.g., founders of Verkada, Reddit, Instacart).
The why
Millions struggle to access timely, effective therapy. Sonia’s bet is that carefully-designed conversational interfaces—especially voice—plus rigorous evaluation can expand access without compromising outcomes. The team explicitly frames development more like drug development than a typical consumer app: ship quickly, measure real-world effect, and harden safety guardrails as scale grows. If successful, this could put high-quality support in everyone’s pocket.
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Relocation & Sponsorship
Relocation Assistance
Visa Sponsorship
Must-Have Requirements
Has worked at a high-growth startup and thrived in a fast-moving, high-stakes environment.
Attended a top-tier university or participated in entrepreneurship accelerators / elite programs, demonstrating high agency and ambition.
In-person, San Francisco (team works on-site). (From founder email + YC page)
Portfolio showing shipped mobile work and hands-on build ownership.
Screening Questions
1. Please share your portfolio:
2. (Optional Video). This step is completely optional. If you’d like, record a short 2–3 minute video introducing yourself and your experience — or share a recording of your interview with the recruiter if that’s easier. You can upload the link via Loom or Google Drive. This just helps us get to know you better, but there’s no pressure if you’d prefer to skip it.
Benefits
Retirement/401k
Health Insurance
Vision Insurance
Dental Insurance
In-person SF team; high ownership on a 5-person, seed-stage startup.
Meaningful equity; fast path to scope as the design/function owner.
Login & Apply to View More
Sign in to your account to access full job details and apply.
Companies to Source From
These companies are similar to our client. Candidates with experience at these companies are seen as a big plus.
Lead Product Development: Spearhead end-to-end UX/UI design and frontend implementation for an iOS app, focusing on therapy sessions, engagement, and progress tracking. Design System Expertise: Establish and maintain a robust design system with accessibility standards, focusing on motion, micro-interactions, and readability. Prototype and Iterate: Create and refine prototypes weekly based on user studies and data to improve clinical outcomes like GAD-7 scores. Collaborative Innovation: ...
