Freelance Product Designer (Fractional)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Freelance Product Designer (Fractional)

Company: Clera

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / GTM Operations (Design Focus)

Date Posted: 2026-09-15

Experience Level: 5-10 years

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• This fractional Product Designer role is central to shaping the entire design surface of an early-stage, AI-powered talent marketplace, driving user experience and product strategy.

• You will operate with significant autonomy, acting as the primary design voice, collaborating directly with founders and engineering to translate ambiguous problems into intuitive, end-to-end user flows.

• A key focus will be on building and evolving a comprehensive design system from the ground up, ensuring scalability and consistency as the product grows.

• The role involves conducting lightweight user research to identify friction points and inform product decisions, contributing to strategic product direction beyond just UI/UX.

📝 Enhancement Note: While this role is in Product Design, its fractional nature, focus on early-stage product development, and direct collaboration with founders and engineering place it in close proximity to GTM operations, particularly in defining the user-facing aspects of a new marketplace. The emphasis on building foundational design systems and iterating quickly aligns with operational efficiency and scalability goals crucial in GTM.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own and execute the complete design surface for Clera's AI-powered talent marketplace, encompassing user interfaces, candidate-facing experiences, employer dashboards, and the AI interaction layer.

• Transform ambiguous product challenges into clear, intuitive, and seamless end-to-end user flows, maintaining a high standard of design craft and user-centricity.

• Architect, build, and mature a robust design system from its inception, ensuring it supports product growth, maintainability, and scalability.

• Conduct practical, lightweight user research through interviews, session observations, and user feedback analysis to pinpoint critical friction points for both candidates and companies.

• Foster a strong, collaborative partnership with the founding team and engineering to facilitate rapid, iterative product development and timely shipping of features.

• Actively contribute to the broader product strategy, offering informed input on priorities, direction, and roadmap beyond the visual design and interaction elements.

• Define and refine the user experience for AI-driven interactions, ensuring intuitive and effective engagement with the platform's intelligent features.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibility of "contributing to product direction beyond pixels, offering input on strategy and priorities alongside the founding team" highlights a strategic operational impact. This goes beyond typical design tasks, requiring an understanding of market dynamics, user acquisition, and retention strategies, which are core to GTM operations.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong foundation in design principles, user experience, and human-computer interaction is expected, often gained through formal education or extensive self-study and practical application.

Experience: 5+ years of dedicated experience in digital product design, with a significant portion spent in a startup environment as the primary or sole designer, demonstrating ability to operate with autonomy and broad responsibility.

Required Skills:

• Deep fluency and practical expertise in Figma for comprehensive product design, wireframing, prototyping, and advanced design system development.

• Proven ability to design and deliver end-to-end flows and complex interaction models for multi-stakeholder products, particularly in marketplace or platform contexts.

• Demonstrated experience in building and scaling design systems from the ground up, including component libraries, style guides, and governance.

• Competency in conducting lightweight user research, synthesizing findings, and translating them into actionable product design decisions.

• A strong portfolio showcasing shipped work that exemplifies excellent taste, clarity of thought, and user-centric design solutions.

• Ability to work autonomously and effectively within an asynchronous, distributed team environment, requiring strong self-management and communication skills.

• Must be currently active in product design work, without significant gaps in recent professional experience. Preferred Skills:

• Prior experience designing for marketplaces, platforms, or multi-sided network businesses.

• Experience designing products that leverage AI, particularly conversational interfaces or AI-driven decision support tools.

• Familiarity with or background in recruiting, HR tech, or talent marketplace products, providing domain expertise.

• Understanding of Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies and how design contributes to user acquisition, activation, and retention.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Nice to have" sections, particularly "experience designing marketplaces, platforms, or multi-sided networks" and "background in recruiting, HR tech, or talent marketplace products," are highly relevant to understanding the operational dynamics of a talent marketplace. This domain knowledge is invaluable for a designer aiming to impact GTM strategy.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A comprehensive portfolio showcasing shipped digital products, emphasizing end-to-end design process from problem definition to final implementation.

• Case studies that clearly articulate design challenges, strategic thinking, user research methodologies, design decisions, and measurable outcomes.

• Demonstrations of UI design skills, interaction design patterns, and user flow optimization for complex systems.

• Specific examples of design system development, including component libraries, style guides, and their application in maintaining product consistency and scalability.

• Evidence of working in a startup environment, highlighting adaptability, autonomy, and the ability to drive design initiatives with minimal oversight. Process Documentation:

• Showcase your approach to turning ambiguous problems into structured design processes and actionable solutions.

• Illustrate your methodology for conducting and integrating lightweight user research into the design cycle.

• Provide examples of how you've built or contributed to design systems, including documentation and governance strategies.

• Demonstrate your ability to collaborate effectively with engineering and product teams, outlining your workflow for iterative development and feedback integration.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a fractional role like this, the portfolio is critical. It serves as direct evidence of operational capability in design. The emphasis on "building from the ground up" and "turning ambiguous problems into clean, intuitive end-to-end flows" means the portfolio should highlight foundational work, process definition, and problem-solving under uncertainty—all key operational competencies.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: An estimated annual compensation range of $100,000 to $120,000 USD. This is based on the provided salary information for a fractional freelance or contractor engagement, reflecting industry standards for experienced product designers in high-cost-of-living areas like San Francisco, and considering the startup environment.

Benefits:

• Competitive freelance/contractor compensation.

• Opportunity to work directly with founders and engineering teams in an early-stage startup.

• Significant ownership and autonomy over the product's design surface.

• Direct impact on product strategy and direction.

• Flexible, fully remote work environment.

Working Hours: This is a full-time, fractional role. While specific daily hours are flexible and the team operates asynchronously, candidates should expect to dedicate approximately 40 hours per week to meet the demands of the role and contribute effectively to the product roadmap.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is provided as a direct conversion of the stated compensation for a full-time fractional role. The benefits listed are those inferred from the job description's emphasis on autonomy, direct impact, and remote work, which are key attractive elements for fractional or contract roles in startups.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology, specifically focused on AI and Human Resources/Talent Acquisition. Clera operates within the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-powered recruitment and talent marketplaces, aiming to disrupt traditional job search and hiring processes.