Staff Product Designer (Grant OS)

Hello, we’re Instrumentl. 👋

Nonprofits do some of the most important work in the world, and most of them are still managing grants in spreadsheets. We're fixing that.

Instrumentl is a profitable, hypergrowth, YC-backed SaaS platform building the operating system for grant-funded organizations. More than 5,500 nonprofits use Instrumentl to discover, track, and win grant funding, from local community organizations to the San Diego Zoo and the University of Alaska. Collectively they’ve moved over $1 billion through our platform.

We're growing quickly, customers love us (check out our G2 reviews!), and we're hiring people who want to build something that matters.

About the role:

We are hiring a Staff Product Designer reporting to the Head of Design. You'll own GrantOS, the foundational layer every other product area at Instrumentl sits on top of: Platform (the data layer, MCP, BI), Core (Tracker, Tasks, Reports, Integrations), and the enterprise surfaces that connect them. This is the seat where you define how grant professionals experience Instrumentl as a system rather than a set of features, which means the data models, permissions, and interaction patterns you set get inherited by every designer and every pod after you. You'll report to Hope, Head of Design, and partner directly with your PM and engineering lead. Much of this area is still being invented, so you will be defining problems rather than receiving specs.

What you'll do:

Platform & Systems

• Own end-to-end design for GrantOS across Platform, Core, and enterprise, from discovery through ship and iteration
• Define the data relationships, permission models, and integration surfaces that hold up across every workflow in the product
• Set the interaction patterns and design system foundations that every other product area inherits
• Design how work connects across pods, so a change in one area makes the next one smarter instead of harder

Zero to One

• Drive definition in genuinely greenfield spaces where the right answer is not obvious yet
• Write your own brief, frame the problem, and set roadmap direction in partnership with your PM
• Make good calls with incomplete information and sequence the work so the team ships learnings quickly
• Shape how grant professionals manage tasks, reporting, and integrations across the full grant lifecycle

Research & Influence

• Recruit participants, run the interviews, and synthesize ambiguous user needs into clear product direction
• Bring a point of view into the room and push back when something is not right for users
• Align engineering, product, and GTM on direction at any level of the company
• Raise the quality bar across the design team and coach the designers around you

What we're looking for:

Required

• 10+ years of product design experience with meaningful time at staff or principal level, having owned entire product domains rather than features inside them
• Proven end-to-end ownership of a platform or core product area in complex B2B or enterprise SaaS: data models, permissions, integration surfaces, and patterns that other teams build on top of
• Shipped net-new product work alongside that platform work, including 0-to-1 areas you helped define rather than received as a finished spec
• Deep involvement in user research end to end, from planning and recruiting through synthesis into product decisions
• Experience designing agentic or AI-powered product surfaces

Nice to have

• Design systems experience where you defined the patterns, not only used them
• Prototyping with AI tools, for example building working prototypes in Claude or Cursor that engineers can build from
• Exposure to compliance, data integrity, or workflow-heavy domains
• Startup experience where process was lightweight and you brought your own structure
• Experience mentoring or coaching other designers
• Familiarity with the nonprofit or social impact sector

Compensation & Benefits

For US-based candidates, the target salary range for this role is $200,000 – $230,000 USD, plus equity. Final compensation is determined based on experience, skillset, scope of responsibility, interview performance, and geographic location. We’re committed to paying competitively and equitably.

For candidates based in Canada, compensation varies by province and will be shared by your recruiter early in the process.

Benefits

• 100% covered health, dental, and vision insurance for employees (50% for dependents)
• Generous PTO, including parental leave
• 401(k)
• Company laptop and home-office stipend
• Bi-annual company retreats

Instrumentl is evolving rapidly. You’ll always have new challenges and opportunities to grow here.

Instrumentl is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building an inclusive workplace and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, or any other legally protected status. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please let us know.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.