Founding Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Founding Product Designer

Company: Avallon

Location: New York, NY

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / GTM Operations Interface

Date Posted: October 02, 2026

Experience Level: 5+ Years

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the end-to-end design of customer-facing interfaces for an AI-powered insurance claims automation platform, focusing on high-density, technical software used by operators.

• Establish the foundational design language, user research practices, and overall design bar for a rapidly growing early-stage startup.

• Drive the transformation of complex, manual insurance processes into intuitive and efficient digital workflows through user-centric design.

• Collaborate closely with engineering, product, and customer-facing teams to translate user needs and business requirements into shippable design solutions.

• Own the user experience for critical workflows, including claims intake, review, exception handling, agent work display, and executive reporting.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Product Designer," the description heavily emphasizes the operational impact and the need to design for "operators" and "dense, technical software" used for "six hours a day." This strongly suggests a focus on designing the user interface for the operations of their AI agents, rather than a traditional end-user product. Therefore, this role is framed within the context of GTM Operations Interface design, bridging product design with operational efficiency.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own the complete design lifecycle for all customer-facing surfaces, including the claims workspace, review/exception flows, agent performance displays, and executive reporting dashboards.

• Develop and implement a comprehensive design system and guiding principles to ensure consistency, scalability, and a high standard of visual and interaction design across the platform.

• Conduct in-depth user research, including direct observation of operators in their daily tasks, to identify points of friction, understand complex workflows, and validate design decisions.

• Translate user problems and business needs into clear, actionable workflows, prototypes, and detailed design specifications for engineering teams.

• Drive the usability and effectiveness of the platform by defining and measuring key UX metrics, analyzing behavioral data, and iterating on designs to reduce user effort and improve task completion.

• Partner with Field Development Engineers (FDEs) and directly with customers to gather insights, present design concepts, and ensure designs meet the rigorous demands of the insurance industry.

• Shape the interaction model for AI agents, ensuring users can clearly understand agent actions, reasoning, data sources, and confidently intervene or approve outcomes.

• Champion a data-driven design approach, integrating UX instrumentation and analysis with qualitative user research to continuously optimize the user experience.

• Act as the primary design authority, setting the standard for design excellence and mentoring future design hires as the team grows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strong emphasis on "shipping it" and driving designs from discovery through delivery, indicating a highly hands-on and accountable role. The focus on "density" and "explicit state" points to designing for experienced users in complex, regulated environments, which is a hallmark of operational software.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in product design, with a proven track record of end-to-end ownership of software interfaces.

• Demonstrated experience designing complex, high-density technical software solutions, particularly those used by operators or in demanding, workflow-intensive environments. Required Skills:

• End-to-End Design Ownership: Ability to manage the entire design process from concept generation and user research through to final delivery and iteration.

• Portfolio Depth in Technical Software: A strong portfolio showcasing successful design projects for complex, dense software applications, ideally used by operators for extended periods.

• User-Centric Problem Solving: A deep empathy for users, with a demonstrated ability to observe, understand, and translate user challenges into effective design solutions, prioritizing user needs over defending initial concepts.

• High Agency & Autonomy: Self-starter mentality, capable of independently identifying opportunities, defining problems, and driving design initiatives without direct supervision.

• Interaction Design: Expertise in designing intuitive and efficient user flows, information architecture, and interactive elements for complex applications.

• User Research & Synthesis: Proficiency in conducting qualitative user research (interviews, observations) and synthesizing findings into actionable design insights.

• Data Analysis & UX Instrumentation: Ability to define, instrument, and analyze UX metrics to measure the impact of design changes and identify areas for improvement.

• Design Systems: Experience in developing and maintaining design systems, style guides, and component libraries to ensure consistency and efficiency.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing for AI-powered products, including understanding of concepts like citations, confidence scores, and human-in-the-loop workflows.

• Exposure to regulated industries such as insurance, claims processing, healthcare, or other compliance-heavy operational domains.

• Experience with brand development and visual identity design.

• Prior experience in an early-stage startup environment, particularly as the first hire in a design function.

• Familiarity with workflow automation and optimization principles.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for a portfolio showing "dense, technical software" used by "operators" for "six hours a day" is a critical differentiator. This signals a need for design skills that go beyond typical consumer-facing apps, focusing on efficiency, clarity, and robustness in professional environments. The emphasis on "high agency" is crucial for an early-stage, first-hire role.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• End-to-End Case Studies: Showcase 2-3 in-depth case studies demonstrating complete ownership of design projects from problem definition to shipped solution. These should highlight the "dense, technical software" aspect, illustrating how complex workflows were simplified.

• Operator Focus: Include examples of designs created for professional users who spend significant time interacting with software for their daily tasks.

• Process Optimization: Clearly articulate how your design decisions led to measurable improvements in efficiency, task completion time, error reduction, or user satisfaction for operational workflows.

• System Design Thinking: Demonstrate an understanding of how individual design elements fit into a larger system, including experience with establishing design systems or maintaining UI consistency.

• AI Interaction Design (if applicable): If you have experience with AI products, include examples showcasing how you designed interfaces for human-AI collaboration, trust, and transparency.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Be prepared to discuss your process for mapping out complex operational workflows, identifying bottlenecks, and designing solutions that streamline these processes.

• User Research Methodology: Detail your approach to conducting user research, particularly in professional or operational settings, and how you translate research findings into design requirements.

• Collaboration & Iteration: Explain how you collaborate with engineering, product management, and stakeholders to iterate on designs, incorporating feedback and ensuring successful implementation.

• Metrics & Measurement: Be ready to present how you measure the success of your designs, using both qualitative feedback and quantitative data (e.g., UX instrumentation).

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio is critical for this role as it's the primary way to assess a candidate's ability to handle complex, operational software. Emphasis should be placed on demonstrating how designs directly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of users performing detailed, multi-hour tasks.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $170,000 - $220,000 USD per year.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: 100% of medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums covered for employees.

• Wellness Stipend: A generous monthly stipend for gym memberships or other health and wellness activities.

• Daily Meals: Catered lunch and dinner provided every workday, supporting a productive on-site work environment.

• Team Building & Recharge: Quarterly offsites to foster team cohesion and provide opportunities for relaxation and connection in desirable locations.

• Equity: Opportunity to gain significant ownership in a rapidly growing startup through stock options.

• Professional Development: As the first designer, there will be ample opportunity to shape processes, tools, and career growth trajectory.

Working Hours:

• Standard full-time hours (approximately 40 hours per week), with an expectation of commitment to project deadlines and collaborative work. The role is on-site in New York City, fostering in-person collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is competitive for a senior, founding design role in New York City. The benefits package is strong, particularly the daily meals and health coverage, which are designed to support an intensive, on-site startup culture. The "Equity" benefit is particularly significant for a founding role.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Insurtech / Automation

Company Size: Early-stage startup (likely <50 employees based on "founding" and "first hire" descriptions). This means a fast-paced, agile environment with significant individual impact.

Founded: Founded out of Y Combinator, achieving seven figures in ARR within the first year and growing 3X quarter-over-quarter. This indicates rapid product-market fit and strong investor backing.

Team Structure:

• Talent-Dense Team: Avallon prioritizes hiring highly skilled individuals who can operate with significant autonomy.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Close partnership between design, engineering, product, and customer-facing roles (like FDEs) is essential for success.

• Flat Hierarchy: As an early-stage company, the structure is likely to be relatively flat, with direct access to leadership and founders.

Methodology:

• AI-Driven Automation: The core product leverages AI to automate complex, manual insurance processes.

• Data-Driven Design: Emphasis on using behavioral data and user research to inform design decisions and measure impact.

• Agile Development: Expect iterative development cycles, rapid prototyping, and continuous deployment.

• Customer-Centricity: A strong focus on understanding and solving real-world problems for insurance carriers and their operators.

Company Website: https://www.avallon.ai/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture is characterized by rapid growth, a focus on cutting-edge AI technology, and a commitment to solving complex problems in a traditional industry. The "talent-dense" ethos suggests high expectations for all team members.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a "Founding" level role. As the first designer, you will be instrumental in defining the product's user experience and the company's design culture. This is a senior individual contributor role with significant strategic influence.

Reporting Structure: You will report directly to a founder or Head of Product/Engineering. Your role will involve close collaboration with engineers and customer-facing teams, but you will be the primary owner of the design function.

Operations Impact: Your work will directly impact the efficiency, adoption, and success of Avallon's AI agents for large insurance carriers. By making the user interface intuitive and effective, you will enable these carriers to reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and scale their operations, thereby driving Avallon's revenue and market penetration.

Growth Opportunities:

• Design Leadership: As the company scales, you will have the opportunity to build and lead a design team, establishing its structure, processes, and hiring strategy.

• Strategic Influence: You will play a key role in product strategy, influencing the direction of the platform based on your deep understanding of user needs and operational workflows.

• Skill Specialization: Opportunities to deepen expertise in AI product design, complex workflow optimization, and establishing design systems for enterprise software.

• Domain Expertise: Develop specialized knowledge within the Insurtech and AI automation sectors.

• Equity Growth: As an early employee, you have the potential for significant financial upside as the company grows and its valuation increases.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a unique opportunity for a designer to build a function from the ground up and have a profound impact on the company's trajectory. The growth path is strongly geared towards leadership and strategic influence.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The company emphasizes an on-site work environment in New York City, providing catered meals and fostering in-person collaboration. This suggests a dedicated, focused workspace.

Office Location(s): New York City, NY. Specific details about the office itself are not provided, but the focus on meals and offsites implies a commitment to employee well-being and team building within the physical workspace.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Hub: The on-site model is designed to facilitate spontaneous interactions, brainstorming sessions, and close collaboration between design, engineering, and product teams.

• Tooling & Technology: While specific tools are detailed later, expect a modern tech stack conducive to rapid development and design.

• Operational Focus: The environment is geared towards solving complex operational challenges, meaning discussions will likely revolve around efficiency, data, and user workflows.

Work Schedule:

• Standard full-time hours are expected, with a strong emphasis on delivering results. The on-site nature fosters a culture of shared commitment and availability for collaborative tasks.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on being "based in NYC and excited to work in person" is a critical requirement. This suggests the company values the synergy and rapid iteration that comes from co-located teams.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A brief call to assess general fit, experience, and understanding of the role's unique demands.

• Portfolio Review & Deep Dive: A comprehensive session where you present your portfolio, focusing on case studies demonstrating end-to-end ownership of complex, technical software design. Expect in-depth questions about your process, decision-making, and impact.

• Design Challenge/Case Study: You may be asked to work on a specific design problem or case study related to Avallon's domain, either as a take-home assignment or an in-session exercise. This will test your problem-solving skills, operational thinking, and ability to apply design principles to real-world challenges.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with engineering, product, and potentially customer-facing team members to assess collaboration style, communication skills, and technical understanding.

• Founder/Leadership Interview: A final conversation to discuss vision, cultural fit, and long-term impact.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Prioritize Operational Impact: Focus on case studies that clearly demonstrate how your designs solved problems for operators, improved efficiency, or reduced friction in complex workflows. Quantify results wherever possible.

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Walk through your design process for each case study, explaining your rationale, the trade-offs you considered, and how you arrived at your final solutions. Use visuals effectively.

• Highlight Technical Software Experience: Explicitly point out elements in your portfolio that showcase your ability to design for dense, technical applications used by professionals.

• Emphasize Agency: Be prepared to discuss how you identified needs, took initiative, and drove projects forward, especially in situations with ambiguity or limited direction.

• Prepare for AI/Domain Questions: If you have relevant experience with AI products or the insurance/claims domain, be ready to discuss it in detail.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Research the insurance claims process, common pain points for adjusters and claims handlers, and the role of AI in automation.

• Focus on Efficiency & Density: If given a challenge, think about how to present dense information clearly and enable users to complete tasks efficiently.

• Articulate Trade-offs: Be prepared to discuss the choices you made and the trade-offs involved in your design decisions.

• Showcase Collaboration: Think about how you would involve engineers and stakeholders in the design process.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process will heavily scrutinize your portfolio and your ability to design for operational efficiency in complex software. Be ready to articulate your thought process in detail and demonstrate a deep understanding of user workflows.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (highly probable for collaborative design and prototyping).

• User Research Platforms: Tools for conducting interviews, surveys, and usability testing (e.g., UserTesting.com, Lookback, Dovetail).

• Project Management/Collaboration: Likely Jira, Asana, or similar for tracking design tasks and collaborating with engineering.

• Communication: Slack for day-to-day team communication.

Analytics & Reporting:

• UX Instrumentation: Tools to track user behavior within the application (e.g., Amplitude, Mixpanel, Pendo).

• Data Analysis: Proficiency with data analysis tools or languages (e.g., SQL, Python, Tableau) may be beneficial for synthesizing behavioral data.

• Dashboarding: Tools to visualize performance metrics for internal and external stakeholders.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly designing the CRM, an understanding of how design interfaces integrate with CRM data and automate workflows will be advantageous.

📝 Enhancement Note: While specific tools aren't listed, the role demands proficiency in standard UI/UX design and prototyping tools. The emphasis on UX instrumentation and data analysis suggests that experience with analytics platforms is highly valued for measuring design impact.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Excellence & High Standards: A commitment to building best-in-class software and setting a high bar for design quality.

• Customer Obsession: Deeply understanding and prioritizing the needs of insurance carriers and their operators.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Relying on data and user research to inform product and design choices.

• Bias for Action & Execution: A culture that values shipping quickly, iterating, and delivering tangible results.

• Autonomy & Ownership: Empowering individuals to take responsibility and drive initiatives forward with minimal oversight.

• Collaboration & Transparency: Open communication and teamwork across disciplines to achieve shared goals.

Collaboration Style:

• Close Partnership with Engineering: Working hand-in-hand with engineers to ensure designs are feasible, implemented correctly, and understood.

• Direct User Engagement: Regularly interacting with customers and operators to gather feedback and validate design solutions.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Ensuring design decisions are aligned with product strategy, business goals, and customer success.

• Feedback-Rich Environment: Expect a culture where constructive feedback is regularly exchanged to improve designs and processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture appears to be a blend of intense startup drive, a focus on cutting-edge technology, and a deep commitment to solving practical operational problems for a traditional industry. The values emphasize high performance and user-centricity.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Defining a New Category: Designing for AI agents and their operational interfaces in the insurance industry is a novel challenge, requiring innovation and clear communication of value.

• Balancing Density and Usability: Creating interfaces for complex, regulated workflows that are both information-rich and easy to use requires significant skill and iteration.

• Establishing Design from Scratch: As the first designer, you will face the challenge of building processes, systems, and a design culture from the ground up, requiring strong leadership and strategic thinking.

• Rapid Scaling: Keeping pace with the company's rapid growth (3X quarter-over-quarter) means adapting designs and processes quickly to meet evolving product and customer needs.

• Human-AI Collaboration Design: Effectively designing the interaction between human operators and AI agents to build trust and ensure seamless workflow integration.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Build a Design Function: Develop leadership skills by establishing and growing the design team and its processes.

• Deep Dive into AI & Operations: Gain specialized knowledge in AI product design and the operational intricacies of the insurance industry.

• Strategic Product Influence: Contribute significantly to product direction and strategy as a key member of the founding team.

• Mastery of Complex Software Design: Hone skills in designing for high-density, enterprise-level applications with a focus on efficiency and automation.

• Industry Exposure: Work with leading insurance carriers and gain insights into their operational challenges and technology adoption.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are significant but come with commensurate growth opportunities. The role is ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity and enjoys building foundational elements of a company.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your process for taking a complex operational workflow and translating it into an intuitive user interface."

• "How do you approach designing for users who are highly specialized and spend many hours a day using your software?"

• "Walk me through a time you had to design for a regulated industry. What were the key considerations?"

• "How do you balance the need for information density with user-friendliness in technical software?"

• "Given our focus on AI agents, how would you design an interface that builds trust between a human operator and an AI?" Company & Culture Questions:

• "What excites you about Avallon's mission to automate the insurance industry?"

• "How do you see yourself contributing to building a design culture from the ground up?"

• "Describe your ideal collaboration dynamic with engineering and product teams."

• "What are your thoughts on working in a fast-paced, on-site startup environment?"

• "How do you stay updated on best practices in product design, especially for AI and enterprise software?" Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Focus on Process, Not Just Pixels: For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your research methods, design iterations, and the rationale behind your decisions.

• Quantify Impact: Wherever possible, present metrics that demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., reduction in task time, error rates, user satisfaction scores).

• Highlight Operational Relevance: Emphasize how your designs specifically addressed the needs of operators and improved their workflows.

• Be Prepared for Whiteboarding: You may be asked to sketch out ideas or solutions to a design problem on a whiteboard during the interview.

• Showcase Your "Agency": Be ready to talk about times you took initiative, identified problems independently, and drove solutions forward.

📝 Enhancement Note: Prepare to discuss your design philosophy, your process for tackling complex operational problems, and how you would build the design function at Avallon. Your portfolio should be curated to specifically highlight your experience with dense, technical software and your ability to drive measurable operational improvements.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Founding Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby.

• Portfolio Customization: Ensure your portfolio prominently features case studies demonstrating end-to-end ownership of complex, technical software, with a clear focus on operational efficiency and user workflows.

• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to highlight your 5+ years of experience, specific skills in UI/UX, user research, design systems, and any experience with AI, Insurtech, or regulated industries. Quantify achievements where possible.

• Prepare Your Narrative: Be ready to articulate why you are the ideal candidate for a "founding" role, emphasizing your high agency, collaborative spirit, and passion for building impactful products. Practice presenting your portfolio with a focus on process and results.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Avallon's mission, product, and recent news to demonstrate genuine interest and understanding during interviews. Understand the challenges of the insurance industry and how AI can address them.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.