Salary / Hourly Rate: $140,000 - $200,000 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.,US Citizens Only
Role Information
Role Overview: N/A
Responsibilities: Own end-to-end design of the app experience, Talk to users + dig into interaction data, Ideate with team, Design end-to-end flows, Prototype with AI tools; hand off to engineering team, Help with website/internal tools/research onboarding when nee
Qualifications: Mobile app design experience (preferably startup), Uses AI tools heavily (solo output leverage), Highly creative; rethink UI best practices for AI apps, Experience working with/prompting AI models (understanding what models can/can’t do)
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 a link to your portfolio (ideally for mobile app, required):,(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 Sonia’s core product experience end-to-end. You’ll talk to users (clients), review interaction data, and rapidly iterate on key flows across voice + text therapy sessions. You’ll prototype new UX quickly (often using AI tools), then work closely with the team to ship production-ready designs. Expect a fast loop: ideate → prototype → test → ship → measure. Our north star is improving validated outcomes (anxiety + depression), while maintaining a high bar for safety and trust.
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: This is a high-ownership role where you’ll define the product’s design direction from early stage through scale. You’ll set quality bars, establish reusable patterns, and help shape how we design for AI-first therapy experiences. As the product grows, you’ll have the opportunity to expand scope across new surfaces (core app, website, internal tools, onboarding), and potentially help build/design the future design function.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: You’ve shipped mobile app experiences end-to-end (startup experience is a plus, but not required)., You iterate fast, grounded in user feedback and product data., You use AI tools heavily to increase your output (prototyping, exploration, content, workflows)., You have excellent product taste and can rethink “standard” UX patterns for AI-native apps., You can collaborate tightly with a small team in-person in San Francisco (6 days/week)., You’ve designed for emotionally sensitive, high-trust contexts (health, finance, safety, etc.)., You have experience prompting or working with AI models and understand what they can/can’t reliably do., You’re only interested in visual polish without owning discovery + iteration., You need a remote role (this is in-person in SF)., You prefer slow cycles or lots of process overhead.
