⚠️ Please read first

• This is a full-time, in-person role based in San Francisco (Presidio) - we work from the office 5 days a week.
• You must be based in the Bay Area or willing to relocate before starting.
• We require US work authorisation , but are open to O-1 or J-1 visa sponsorship for exceptional candidates.

About Sauna by Wordware

Every tool you use was built as an island, so you became the glue between them. You carry a name from Gmail into the CRM, a time from the CRM into Calendly, a note from Calendly into a doc. AI showed up and mostly became an eleventh window to paste into.

Sauna is a hybrid of AI and software standing on one shared brain. It holds your context and hands you real software built on top of it. You talk to it like a chatbot and use what it builds like an app: software for the path you repeat, AI for the edge that never repeats. Keep it to yourself, or share the brain with your team.

The clearest way to see it is a tool doing what its whole category cannot. An ordinary Calendly shows a stranger your free slots. Your Calendly writes the invite email itself, because it knows how the two of you know each other, and it offers a board member the slot over your gym block, because it knows which of your busy hours bend and for whom.

Wordware is the team behind it, 15 people backed by Spark Capital, Felicis, and Y Combinator with a $30M seed, the largest in YC's history. We build from an office in the Presidio, fifty metres from Crissy Field beach, and we work absurdly hard because we can see and feel the outcome every day.

About the Role:

We're looking for a Designer to make Sauna beautiful, from the brand that represents it to the pixel-perfect screens users see every day. This isn't an abstract "design thinking" role. You'll take user flows the product team has designed and execute them to the highest visual standard: typography, color, spacing, interactions, all of it. You'll also own how Sauna looks to the world: brand guidelines, marketing materials, and the visual identity that earns attention. You'll report to the CEO and Head of Product.

Heads-up: while we don't use seniority titles at Wordware, this role is intended for designers with 3+ years of experience who have already shipped polished work at a company that cares about craft.

What You'll Do:

• Turn user flows into pixel-perfect, production-ready Figma files
• Work closely with the product designer and engineering to ensure visual fidelity across all surfaces
• Build and maintain brand guidelines: typography, color, iconography, visual language
• Design all outward-facing brand assets: website, social, launch content, decks
• Own the visual consistency of the product across web, mobile, and email
• Move fast: iterate on designs in hours, not days

Who You Are:

Minimum:

• Have 3+ years of visual design experience, with a portfolio that shows pixel-level craft
• Be proficient in Figma: you prototype and specify in Figma faster than anyone
• Understand the difference between design and art: every decision serves a user and a goal
• Have strong brand instincts: you can take a brand direction and build a complete system from it
• Be able to execute from a brief without needing to own the strategy
• Work cleanly: organized files, clear naming, design systems you'd actually want to maintain

Bonus (but not required):

• Experience at a fast-growing startup that shipped a polished consumer product
• Motion design skills (Figma prototyping, Lottie, After Effects)
• Experience designing for both product and brand in the same company
• A personal aesthetic: something distinct in your portfolio that isn't just "clean and minimal"
• AI tools already in your workflow (Figma AI, code assistants, etc.)
• A portfolio of brand work: logos, visual identities, design systems

Compensation & Benefits:

Base salary: $140K–$220K + meaningful early-stage equity + health, dental, 401(k), considerable PTO, gym budget, lunch.

The Process:

We keep our process simple. Exceptional candidates go from first touch to offer within 2 weeks.

1. Application: Submit your resume and answer a few short questions.
2. 15-minute intro call: Quick check to align on location, motivation, and logistics. If it's a go, we move fast from here.
3. Portfolio review & craft interview: Walk us through your work and the decisions behind it.
4. Final conversation: We answer your questions and scope out the work trial.
5. Work trial: Paid, in person, usually a few days to two weeks. You work on a real project with us. See how we work, see if it fits, both sides.