Founding UX Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Founding UX Designer

Company: Neutreeno

Location: Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / UX Design

Date Posted: 2026-08-26

Experience Level: 7+ years

Remote Status: Hybrid (minimum 2 days/week in office)

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the end-to-end design of a complex B2B SaaS product focused on emissions data, transforming intricate information into actionable insights for operations, finance, and sustainability audiences.

• Establish and own a comprehensive, AI-native design system, architected for machine readability and direct integration with AI coding agents for rapid prototyping and production UI development.

• Drive customer engagement strategies, designing and implementing structures for continuous client feedback, usability testing, and systematic integration of user insights into the product roadmap.

• Foster strong cross-functional collaboration with engineering, product management, and climate science teams, translating design intent into robust, shippable features and ensuring honest representation of data uncertainty.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is explicitly described as the "first full-time UX design hire" and a "founding seat in the design function," indicating a high degree of autonomy, strategic influence, and the opportunity to shape the future of design at Neutreeno. The emphasis on "AI-native" design systems and direct integration with AI coding agents signifies a forward-thinking approach to product development, requiring candidates to be proficient and enthusiastic about leveraging artificial intelligence in their design workflows.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own the complete product design lifecycle, from initial problem framing and information architecture to detailed interaction design and the final shipped user interface.

• Translate complex, uncertain, and hierarchical emissions data into clear, legible, and actionable formats for diverse business stakeholders.

• Define and champion the visual and interaction design direction, elevating the overall craft and user experience of the product.

• Develop rapid prototypes to iterate quickly on design concepts and validate user flows.

• Architect, build, and maintain Neutreeno's design system, encompassing foundations, components, patterns, content guidelines, and data visualization standards.

• Ensure the design system is machine-readable and AI-native, enabling AI coding tools and agentic workflows to generate production-ready UI components reliably.

• Facilitate the fastest possible path from design concept to both functional prototypes and deployed production UI.

• Advocate for and integrate AI-native design and development practices across the product team.

• Collaborate closely with software engineers to translate design specifications into well-defined, executable tasks, ensuring reliable delivery of features.

• Partner with the Head of Product to contribute to product discovery, roadmap planning, and prioritization efforts.

• Engage with climate engineers to deeply understand the scientific methodologies behind the emissions data, ensuring accurate and honest representation of uncertainty, assumptions, and data quality within the interface.

• Design and implement systematic structures for continuous customer engagement, including design partner programs, regular usability sessions, and established feedback channels.

• Create clear pathways for user feedback to directly influence product development decisions.

• Embed customer engagement practices across the company, fostering a shared habit of client interaction beyond the design team.

• Conduct discovery research to identify and validate new product capabilities, understanding user needs and defining success criteria.

• Measure the impact of shipped product features against key performance indicators and feed these insights back into the product roadmap.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a significant emphasis on building foundational design processes and systems from the ground up. The "AI-native" aspect of the design system and the expectation for AI coding agents to build against it are critical differentiators, suggesting a need for candidates with experience or a strong aptitude for this emerging design paradigm. The role also demands a deep dive into scientific data and a nuanced approach to visualizing uncertainty, which is a key challenge in data-heavy B2B products.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio demonstrating equivalent practical knowledge and experience in Product/UX design is paramount.

Experience: A minimum of 7 years of professional experience in product or UX design, with a proven track record in designing complex B2B, enterprise, or data-intensive products. Experience as an early or founding designer at a startup is highly preferred.

Required Skills:

• Product & UX Design: End-to-end ownership of product design, from ideation to implementation.

• Complex Data Design: Proven ability to make complex, uncertain, and hierarchical data legible and actionable for business users.

• Design System Management: Demonstrable experience defining, building, and maintaining a design system, including its consumption by engineering teams.

• AI-Native Design Practices: Real, daily use of AI tools for prototyping, design system tooling, research synthesis, or generating UI components.

• User Research & Usability Testing: Experience designing and conducting research and usability sessions directly with customers.

• Information Architecture: Ability to structure complex information logically and intuitively.

• Interaction Design: Skill in designing user flows and interactions that are intuitive and efficient.

• Visual Design Craft: Strong aesthetic sense and ability to set and raise the bar on visual quality.

• Prototyping: Proficiency in rapid prototyping tools and methodologies.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Ability to work effectively with software engineers, product managers, and scientists.

• Customer Engagement Structures: Experience designing and implementing processes for continuous client feedback.

• Autonomy & Pace: A track record of shipping high-quality work quickly with minimal oversight.

• Communication & Trust Building: Strong communication skills with the ability to quickly build trust across diverse teams.

Preferred Skills:

• Startup Experience: Previous roles as an early or founding designer in an early-stage startup environment.

• Coding Familiarity: Comfort reading code, shipping minor front-end changes, or discussing implementation trade-offs with engineers.

• Data Visualization Expertise: Experience designing data visualizations for analytical products, specifically communicating uncertainty.

• AI Product Design: Experience building AI-powered features or designing for LLM-driven interfaces.

• Domain Exposure: Familiarity with climate, sustainability, supply chain, manufacturing, or deep-tech industries.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "real, daily use of AI tools" as a core requirement, alongside the preferred qualification of designing for AI-powered features, suggests that candidates with hands-on experience in prompt engineering, AI-assisted design workflows, or understanding LLM capabilities will have a significant advantage. The preference for coding familiarity indicates a desire for a designer who can bridge the gap between design and development more effectively, especially in an AI-driven context.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Complex B2B/Data-Heavy Product Case Study: A detailed case study showcasing your design process for a complex B2B or data-intensive product, illustrating how you tackled challenges related to data complexity, user segmentation, and actionable insights.

• Design System Development: A section dedicated to your experience in defining, building, and maintaining design systems. This should include examples of foundational elements, component libraries, pattern documentation, and evidence of how engineering teams consumed and utilized the system.

• AI Integration Examples: Specific examples or case studies demonstrating how you've leveraged AI tools in your design process (e.g., for research synthesis, rapid prototyping, UI generation, or design system automation). If applicable, showcase experience designing for AI-powered features or LLM interfaces.

• Customer Engagement & Research Process: Evidence of how you've designed and implemented structures for user research, usability testing, and continuous customer feedback loops, and how this input influenced product decisions.

• Information Architecture & Interaction Design: Clear examples of how you've approached information architecture for complex datasets and designed intuitive interaction models.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Showcase how you map out and optimize user workflows, particularly for complex data manipulation or analysis tasks.

• AI-Native System Implementation: Detail how you architected or contributed to systems designed for machine readability and AI-driven development, explaining the benefits and challenges.

• Measurement & Performance Analysis: Present how you measure the success of your designs, using metrics to demonstrate impact on user behavior, efficiency, or business outcomes, especially in data-driven products.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirements heavily emphasize practical application of AI in design and the ability to build foundational systems. Candidates should be prepared to showcase not just final designs, but the process of building and maintaining a design system, especially one designed for AI consumption. Demonstrating how user feedback loops were established and how those insights drove product iteration will be critical.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

Given the role's seniority (7+ years experience, founding position), location (Cambridge, UK), and the specialized nature of AI-native design, a competitive salary range is expected. For a Founding UX Designer in Cambridge, UK, with these qualifications, the estimated annual salary range would be between £70,000 and £100,000.

📝 Enhancement Note: This estimate is based on market research for senior UX/Product Designers in the UK technology sector, with adjustments for a hybrid model and the high-demand skills of AI integration and design system leadership. Seniority, the "founding" aspect, and the specific technical requirements (AI-native design) push this towards the higher end of typical senior designer salaries. Actual compensation will be dependent on the candidate's specific skills, experience, and the company's funding stage and compensation philosophy.

Benefits:

• Competitive Pay: Dependent on skills, qualifications, and experience.

• Annual Leave: 25 days per year.

• Performance Bonus: Year-end bonus based on company and individual performance.

• Equity Stake: A meaningful equity stake, reflecting an ownership mindset.

• Company Pension: Pension scheme provided by NEST.

• Private Health Insurance: Leading private health insurance through WPA.

• Cycle to Work Scheme: Encourages sustainable commuting.

• Remote Working Allowance: 2 weeks per year for personal travel, in addition to standard holiday.

• Work from HQ: Opportunity to work from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, a recognized startup hub.

• On-site Amenities: Unlimited free coffee, regular events with global sustainability leaders.

Working Hours:

The role is full-time, with a standard working week likely around 40 hours. The hybrid model offers flexibility, with a minimum requirement of 2 days per week in the Cambridge office.

📝 Enhancement Note: The benefits package is comprehensive, with a strong emphasis on long-term incentives (equity, bonus) and employee well-being (health insurance, leave, remote allowance). The mention of "meaningful equity stake" is particularly attractive for a founding role, aligning employee success with company growth. The remote working allowance offers additional flexibility beyond the standard hybrid model.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology, specifically focused on Environmental & Sustainability solutions within Supply Chain and Emissions Management.

Company Size: Fast-growing, with over 200% YoY growth, having recently closed a $5M seed round. This indicates a dynamic, resource-rich startup environment with significant potential for impact and rapid scaling.

Founded: Neutreeno is a relatively young company, likely founded within the last few years given its seed round status and rapid growth trajectory. This suggests an agile, innovative, and potentially less bureaucratic culture.

Team Structure:

• Operations: As the first full-time UX designer, you will be a foundational member of the product team. You will report to the Head of Product and work closely with software engineers and climate scientists.

• Reporting: You will likely have a direct reporting line to the Head of Product, with potential for future growth into leading a design team as the company scales.

• Collaboration: The culture is described as "open-minded, non-hierarchical" with everyone "vectoring in the same direction." This implies a highly collaborative environment where ideas are valued regardless of title, and cross-functional teamwork is essential.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Design: The core product revolves around complex data, suggesting that design decisions will be heavily influenced by data analysis and a scientific understanding of the domain.

• AI-First Development: A strong emphasis on leveraging AI tools for design and development, aiming for efficiency and direct integration between design systems and AI coding agents.

• Customer-Centric Iteration: The role requires designing structures for continuous client engagement, ensuring that user feedback systematically informs product development and roadmap decisions.

Company Website: neutreeno.com

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's focus on sustainability, its recent funding, and rapid growth create an exciting environment for a founding team member. The "non-hierarchical" and "open-minded" culture suggests a place where initiative is rewarded and contributions are highly visible. The specific mention of working at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership adds a unique environmental and innovation-focused aspect to the work environment.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role represents a "Founding UX Designer" position, signifying a senior-level individual contributor role with significant strategic influence. It is the genesis of the design function within Neutreeno, offering the opportunity to shape its structure, processes, and culture from inception.

Reporting Structure: You will report directly to the Head of Product, working closely with engineering and climate science teams. As the company grows, there is a clear path to leading and expanding the design function, potentially managing a team of designers.

Operations Impact: As the sole and founding designer, your work will directly and significantly impact the core product offering, user experience, and ultimately, Neutreeno's ability to effectively address complex emissions data challenges. Your design decisions will shape how large companies understand and act upon critical sustainability information, directly influencing business operations and environmental impact.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership Development: The explicit path to "leading an expanded design function" provides a clear opportunity for career progression into design leadership and management.

• Skill Specialization: Deepen expertise in designing for complex data, AI-native systems, and sustainability tech, becoming a recognized specialist in these high-demand areas.

• Foundational Impact: Contribute to building a company from its early stages, gaining invaluable experience in scaling product, process, and teams in a high-growth startup environment.

• Industry Influence: Work on a critical problem in climate sustainability, potentially influencing industry standards and best practices in emissions data management and reporting through innovative design.

• Cross-Functional Expertise: Develop strong collaborative relationships and understanding across product management, engineering, and scientific domains.

📝 Enhancement Note: This is a "build from scratch" opportunity, offering unparalleled scope for impact and professional growth. The "founding seat" implies that the successful candidate will not only execute design but also define the design strategy, processes, and potentially build the design team. This is an attractive prospect for ambitious designers looking to make a significant mark.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The role is hybrid, requiring a minimum of 2 days per week in the Neutreeno HQ located at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. This suggests a professional office environment that is also a hub for sustainability innovation.

Office Location(s): Cambridge, England, United Kingdom. The specific location within Cambridge is at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, which is noted as a leading startup hub.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The office space at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership likely fosters collaboration among sustainability-focused organizations and startups.

• Tools & Technology: Expect access to modern design tools and potentially advanced computing resources needed for AI-driven workflows. The role emphasizes AI tools, so the infrastructure to support this will be key.

• Team Interaction: The hybrid model ensures regular face-to-face interaction with colleagues, facilitating team cohesion and spontaneous collaboration, while also allowing for focused work.

Work Schedule:

This is a full-time position. The hybrid model provides flexibility, requiring 2 days in the office per week, with the remaining days able to be worked remotely. An additional 2 weeks of remote work allowance per year for personal travel is also offered, further enhancing flexibility.

📝 Enhancement Note: The physical workspace at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership is a unique selling point, placing Neutreeno within a vibrant ecosystem of sustainability-focused innovation. This environment likely promotes a strong sense of purpose and connection to global sustainability efforts.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

1. Initial Screening: Review of CV, cover letter, and portfolio to assess qualifications and alignment with the role's requirements, especially regarding complex data design and AI tool usage.

2. Portfolio Deep Dive: A session where you walk through your portfolio, discussing specific case studies. Expect in-depth questions about your process for designing complex B2B products, your approach to data visualization, how you've built and managed design systems, and your practical experience with AI tools.

3. Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with the Head of Product, engineering leads, and potentially climate scientists. These will assess your collaboration skills, ability to translate technical requirements into design, and understanding of the scientific domain. Be prepared to discuss how you'd approach specific design challenges related to emissions data.

4. Design Challenge/Exercise: Potentially a take-home assignment or an in-session exercise focused on a specific design problem related to Neutreeno's product, likely involving complex data and requiring an AI-assisted approach or a focus on design system thinking.

5. Final Interview: Discussion with founders or senior leadership to assess cultural fit, strategic thinking, long-term vision for design at Neutreeno, and alignment with the company's mission.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Structure for Impact: Organize your portfolio with clear case studies. For each, detail the problem, your role, the process (emphasizing research, ideation, AI tool usage, design system application), your solutions, and the measurable outcomes.

• Focus on Complexity & Data: Highlight projects where you successfully designed for complex data, uncertainty, and enterprise-level user needs. Clearly articulate the challenges and how your design overcame them.

• Showcase AI Integration: Dedicate space to demonstrate your practical experience with AI tools in design. This could be through specific examples of AI-assisted prototyping, research synthesis, or UI generation.

• Design System Expertise: Present your design system work with clarity. Show not just components, but the underlying principles, governance, and how it facilitated efficient development and prototyping.

• Quantify Results: Where possible, use metrics to demonstrate the impact of your design work (e.g., improved user efficiency, increased adoption, reduced errors).

• Tell a Story: Be prepared to verbally walk through your portfolio, explaining your decision-making process, challenges, and learning at each step.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Familiarize yourself with emissions data, sustainability reporting frameworks (e.g., GHG Protocol), and the challenges faced by operations, finance, and sustainability teams in large organizations.

• AI Tool Proficiency: Be ready to discuss specific AI tools you use and how you integrate them into your workflow for efficiency and innovation.

• Design System Thinking: Practice applying design system principles to new problems and consider how an AI-native system might function.

• Data Visualization: Brush up on best practices for visualizing complex, uncertain, and hierarchical data.

• Problem-Solving Framework: Have a structured approach to tackling ambiguous design problems, especially those involving technical constraints and scientific data.

📝 Enhancement Note: The application process emphasizes a deep dive into your portfolio, with specific attention paid to your experience with complex data, design systems, and crucially, AI tools. Expect to defend your design decisions and demonstrate how you would translate abstract concepts into tangible, AI-enhanced product features. The cover letter prompt is a direct indicator of what they want to see.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma is implied as a standard tool for design systems and prototyping. Other tools like Sketch, Adobe XD, or specialized prototyping software may also be relevant.

• Design System Management: Tools for documentation (e.g., Zeroheight, Storybook), component libraries, and version control.

• AI Design Tools: A broad category that could include AI-powered prototyping tools, AI writing assistants for UI copy, AI for research synthesis (e.g., Dovetail with AI features), and potentially AI tools for generating UI code snippets or components.

• User Research & Testing: Tools like UserTesting.com, Lookback, Maze, or internal feedback mechanisms.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Product Analytics: Tools like Amplitude, Mixpanel, or Google Analytics to track user behavior and feature adoption.

• Data Visualization: While Neutreeno designs its own, familiarity with tools like Tableau, Power BI, or D3.js for understanding data visualization principles can be beneficial.

CRM & Automation:

• CRM: While not directly a UX tool, understanding how customer data is managed (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) is helpful for B2B product context.

• Collaboration & Project Management: Tools like Jira, Asana, Trello, or Notion for managing design tasks, sprints, and cross-functional workflows.

• Version Control: Git or similar for design system assets and potentially front-end code integration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of "AI coding agents" and "AI-native design system" suggests that proficiency with tools that facilitate AI integration or are AI-powered will be highly valued. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their experience with any AI tools that aid in design creation, research synthesis, or the generation of production-ready code from design assets.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Mission-Driven: A strong focus on tackling a critical global problem – climate sustainability and emissions reduction. This suggests a team motivated by purpose.

• Innovation & AI-First: A commitment to leveraging cutting-edge technology, particularly AI, to solve complex problems and build efficient systems.

• Ownership & Autonomy: As a founding member, you are expected to take ownership of the design function and operate with a high degree of autonomy, driving initiatives forward.

• Collaboration & Non-Hierarchy: An "open-minded, non-hierarchical" culture where ideas are valued, and cross-functional teamwork is the norm.

• Data-Informed: A reliance on data and scientific understanding to inform product development and design decisions.

• Pace & Agility: The rapid growth and startup environment imply a culture that values speed, adaptability, and iterative development.

Collaboration Style:

• Shoulder-to-Shoulder: Close, integrated collaboration with engineering, product, and science teams.

• Systemic Integration: Embedding customer engagement structures across the company, making it a shared habit.

• Open Communication: Valuing honest representation of data, assumptions, and uncertainty, fostering transparent communication.

• Feedback Loops: Establishing clear channels for feedback, both internally and externally, and actively using it for continuous improvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture appears to be a blend of startup agility and purpose-driven innovation. The emphasis on "AI-native" practices and "ownership" suggests a team that is forward-thinking, proactive, and comfortable with ambiguity, while the "non-hierarchical" aspect points to a collaborative and inclusive environment.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Data Complexity & Uncertainty: Making highly complex, uncertain, and hierarchical emissions data easily understandable and actionable for diverse user roles.

• AI-Native Design System: Architecting and implementing a design system that is truly "AI-native," enabling AI coding agents to reliably build production UI. This is an emerging and challenging frontier.

• Founding Role Ambiguity: Establishing a design function from scratch, defining processes, tools, and culture with limited existing structure.

• Cross-Disciplinary Understanding: Bridging the gap between design, software engineering, and deep climate science to ensure accurate and effective product representation.

• Balancing Pace and Craft: Maintaining high design quality and rigor while operating at the fast pace of a rapidly growing startup.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Design Leadership: The explicit opportunity to grow into leading and expanding the design function.

• AI & ML in Design: Deepening expertise in AI-native design workflows, prompt engineering for design, and designing for AI-powered features.

• Sustainability Tech Domain: Gaining specialized knowledge in climate science, emissions data, and supply chain sustainability.

• Startup Scaling: Experiencing the challenges and rewards of scaling a product and a company from its early stages.

• Advanced Data Visualization: Developing skills in communicating complex scientific data and uncertainty effectively.

📝 Enhancement Note: The primary challenges revolve around innovation in AI-native design systems and the inherent complexity of the domain data. The growth opportunities are significant, offering a chance to shape a company's design identity and become a leader in a critical and growing field.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Walk us through a complex B2B product you designed. What made it difficult, and how did you approach making the data actionable for users?" (Focus on your process, problem-solving, and user-centricity for complex data.)

• "Describe your experience with AI tools in your design workflow. How do you see AI fundamentally changing the way we design and build products, and how would you implement an 'AI-native' design system?" (Prepare specific examples of AI tool usage and a vision for AI-driven design systems.)

• "How would you establish and run continuous client engagement structures as the sole designer in an early-stage startup? What would be your priorities for discovery and feedback integration?" (Showcase your understanding of user research methodologies and process building.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What specifically draws you to Neutreeno and our mission to tackle climate sustainability?" (Demonstrate genuine interest in the company's purpose and market.)

• "Given our non-hierarchical and collaborative culture, how would you ensure your design vision is effectively communicated and adopted by engineering and product teams?" (Prepare examples of your collaborative communication style.)

• "How do you measure the success of your designs, especially concerning complex data products and AI features? What metrics would you focus on for Neutreeno?" (Showcase your data-driven approach and understanding of impact measurement.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Narrative Arc: Structure your portfolio presentation as a story for each case study – problem, your role, process (highlighting AI, design system, data challenges), solution, and outcome.

• AI Integration Spotlight: Dedicate a section or emphasize within case studies how AI tools were used to accelerate your process, enhance creativity, or improve outcomes.

• Design System Deep Dive: Be ready to explain the architecture, components, and governance of a design system you’ve managed, focusing on its practicality for engineering and AI consumption.

• Interactive Elements: If possible, prepare a live demo of a prototype or a specific interaction that showcases your design thinking and problem-solving skills.

• Conciseness & Clarity: Focus on the most impactful projects and be prepared to answer detailed questions about your decisions and trade-offs.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should heavily lean into demonstrating practical AI tool usage, strategic thinking around design systems for AI, and the ability to translate complex, scientific data into user-friendly interfaces. Be ready to articulate your vision for design leadership and how you would build a design function from the ground up.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this operations position:

• Submit your CV and a cover letter through the provided application link.

• Tailor Your Cover Letter: Address the specific prompts: describe a complex product you designed and its challenges, detail how AI tooling is integrated into your daily design work, and articulate why Neutreeno specifically appeals to you.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Ensure your portfolio prominently features case studies demonstrating experience with complex B2B/data-heavy products, design system development, and practical AI tool usage. Quantify results where possible.

• Resume Optimization: Highlight keywords related to UX Design, Product Design, Design Systems, AI-native design, data visualization, B2B enterprise products, and cross-functional collaboration. Emphasize achievements and impact.

• Prepare for Portfolio Walkthrough: Practice articulating your design process, decision-making, and problem-solving skills for each project, with a specific focus on how you handle complex data and integrate AI.

⚠️ 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.