Lead Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead Product Designer

Company: Authorium

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Product Design / UX/UI Design

Date Posted: April 10, 2026

Experience Level: 7+ Years (with a focus on Enterprise SaaS/B2B)

Remote Status: Hybrid (with potential for remote within the US)

🚀 Role Summary

• Spearhead end-to-end user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design for Authorium's comprehensive platform, focusing on complex, document-centric government workflows.

• Lead the integration of AI features into user experiences, ensuring intuitive and context-aware interactions for users with varying levels of AI expertise.

• Define and elevate the design system, establishing standards for components, patterns, and libraries to accelerate engineering delivery and ensure product consistency.

• Drive user research initiatives, translating qualitative and quantitative insights into actionable design priorities and product roadmap contributions.

• Build and mentor the design function, setting quality standards, establishing review practices, and laying the groundwork for future team growth.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as the first design leader at Authorium, reporting to the Head of Product. The "Lead" title signifies a blend of senior individual contributor design work and foundational team leadership, with significant ownership over the platform's entire UX/UI. The target candidate should possess a strong product mindset and experience in driving strategic design initiatives within an agile, fast-paced environment.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own the complete user journey across the Authorium platform, encompassing intake processes, approvals, document generation, evaluation scoring, configuration, and reporting modules.

• Strategize and design the user experience for AuthorAI, ensuring seamless integration into existing governmental workflows and catering to diverse user AI literacy.

• Proactively identify and resolve UX debt, inconsistencies, and usability issues across the entire product surface to enhance overall user satisfaction and efficiency.

• Shape, evolve, and maintain the company's design system, including components, patterns, and libraries, to ensure scalability and accelerate engineering timelines.

• Design with a strong emphasis on accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) and compliance, meeting the stringent requirements of government clients and ensuring usability for all users.

• Lead and execute comprehensive user research, including usability testing, in-depth interviews, workflow observations, and synthesis of findings to inform design decisions.

• Leverage product analytics tools (e.g., Pendo) to track feature adoption, user behavior, and engagement, translating data into prioritized design improvements.

• Develop and maintain essential design artifacts such as journey maps, personas, and workflow models to provide a user-centric foundation for product development.

• Partner closely with Product Managers to frame problems, define scope, and make critical tradeoff decisions, acting as a co-owner of product outcomes.

• Manage design work within an agile framework (Jira), actively participating in sprint planning, backlog grooming, and release coordination for design-intensive initiatives.

• Collaborate with Engineering leads to ensure technical feasibility, optimize component architecture, and uphold front-end implementation quality.

• Partner with Solutions and Client Success teams to understand deployment contexts, onboarding challenges, and real-world usage patterns, feeding this knowledge back into the design process.

• Present design direction, rationale, and research findings clearly and confidently to leadership, client stakeholders, and cross-functional teams.

• Establish and champion design review practices, critique cadences, and quality standards for the entire design function.

• Contribute to the foundational processes, documentation, and hiring strategies for a scalable design team as Authorium grows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a significant strategic and leadership component, requiring the candidate to not only execute design but also to build and mature the design function itself. The emphasis on "Platform-Level Design Ownership" and "Initiative Execution (Inception → Delivery)" underscores the expectation of a product-minded designer who can operate autonomously and drive significant impact across the entire product lifecycle.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

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

Experience: 7+ years of progressive experience in product design, with a minimum of 3 years specifically focused on enterprise SaaS or complex B2B applications. Demonstrated experience in owning and delivering end-to-end design solutions across an entire platform, rather than isolated features.

Required Skills:

• Proven track record of operating with Product Management-level ownership, including framing problems, driving scope decisions, and managing initiatives from inception through delivery.

• Deep expertise in designing for dense, data-heavy, workflow-driven products, including complex tables, multi-step flows, role-based experiences, and intricate configuration interfaces.

• Demonstrated experience leading user research studies, including planning, execution of usability tests, synthesis of qualitative findings, and direct application to product decisions.

• Strong systems thinking capabilities, with the ability to conceptualize and design the product as an interconnected whole, ensuring coherence and consistency.

• Experience in managing or mentoring other designers, coupled with a clear philosophy on how to build and maintain design quality within a team.

• Expert-level proficiency in Figma, including advanced use of components, libraries, auto-layout, and prototyping features.

• Proficiency in utilizing AI tools to accelerate and enhance the design process and output artifacts.

• Comfort and experience working within Jira-based agile workflows, including sprint planning, backlog management, and cross-functional delivery coordination.

• Solid understanding of accessibility standards, specifically WCAG 2.1 AA, with practical experience designing for compliance-driven environments.

Preferred Skills:

• Prior experience designing for government, public sector, or other highly regulated industry users.

• Familiarity with product analytics tools such as Pendo, Mixpanel, Amplitude, or similar, to inform design decisions with usage data.

• Experience working with offshore or distributed engineering teams, with a focus on ensuring front-end implementation quality.

• Background or practical exposure to Product Management principles, whether formal or informal.

📝 Enhancement Note: The required experience level and specific skills emphasize a senior candidate capable of taking on significant platform ownership and leadership. The "Systems thinking" and "PM-level ownership" requirements are critical indicators that the company seeks a strategic partner, not just an executor. The emphasis on AI integration and accessibility highlights key areas of focus for Authorium.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase end-to-end design ownership across at least one complex enterprise SaaS or B2B platform, detailing your role from problem definition to successful delivery.

• Include case studies demonstrating your ability to design for dense, data-heavy, workflow-driven interfaces, highlighting your approach to tables, filters, multi-step processes, and configuration.

• Present at least one significant user research initiative you led, detailing the methodology, key findings, and how those insights directly influenced design decisions and product outcomes.

• Detail your experience with design systems, either by showcasing one you built or significantly contributed to, or by explaining how you leveraged and evolved an existing one.

• Demonstrate your approach to integrating AI into user workflows, showcasing how you ensure context-awareness and cater to users of varying technical proficiencies.

Process Documentation:

• Provide examples of how you document and communicate complex workflows, user journeys, and interaction patterns to cross-functional teams.

• Showcase instances where you've used product analytics or user feedback to iterate on and improve existing processes and features.

• Illustrate your approach to collaborating with engineering on implementation details, including how you manage design handoffs and ensure design fidelity throughout the development cycle.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given this is a Lead Product Designer role with significant ownership, the portfolio should reflect strategic thinking, end-to-end execution, and leadership potential. Candidates should be prepared to discuss the "why" behind their design choices, the impact of their work on user outcomes and business goals, and their approach to building design processes and systems.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $140,000 – $160,000 USD per year. This range reflects the seniority of the Lead Product Designer role, the specific requirements for enterprise SaaS/B2B platform ownership, and the San Francisco/Bay Area market standards for experienced design leaders.

Benefits:

• Equity (stock options): Opportunity to share in the company's growth and success.

• 100% employer-funded medical, dental, and vision insurance: Comprehensive health coverage for employees and potentially dependents.

• 401(k) with Profit Sharing Plan: Retirement savings plan with an employer contribution component.

• Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO): Encourages work-life balance and provides autonomy over time off.

• $500 Home Office Stipend: Support for setting up or improving a productive remote workspace.

• Commuter Stipend: Assistance for commuting costs if working from a physical office location or for related travel.

Working Hours: The standard working hours are typically 40 hours per week. Given the hybrid nature and the company's agile methodology, flexibility is expected, with a focus on delivering results and collaborating effectively within defined sprint cycles.

📝 Enhancement Note: The provided salary range is competitive for a Lead Product Designer in San Francisco, aligning with the company's Series B funding stage and its need for experienced talent. The benefits package is robust, offering comprehensive health coverage, equity, and support for work-life balance and remote work, which are attractive to senior professionals.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Government Technology (GovTech), Enterprise SaaS. Authorium operates within the critical intersection of public sector administration and modern technology solutions, aiming to modernize inefficient, document-heavy government workflows. This sector often requires a strong emphasis on reliability, security, and compliance.

Company Size: Approaching Series B funding. This indicates a company that has successfully validated its product-market fit and is in a significant growth phase, likely with 50-150 employees. For operations professionals, this means a dynamic environment with opportunities to build processes and scale systems, but also potential for some ambiguity and rapid change.

Founded: While the founding date isn't explicitly stated, the company's progression to Series B suggests it has been operating and growing for several years, likely established in the mid-to-late 2010s. This implies a degree of maturity in its product and market approach, while still retaining a startup's agility.

Team Structure:

• The Product team is described as "small and high-leverage," currently consisting of the Head of Product, a Senior PM, a Product Designer, and an incoming Product Analyst. The Lead Product Designer will report to the Head of Product and manage the existing Product Designer.

• This structure suggests a flat hierarchy within Product, fostering close collaboration and direct impact.

Methodology:

• Agile development methodology, working in two-week sprints.

• Design work is managed in Figma, with delivery tracked in Jira.

• Product analytics are monitored using Pendo.

• Regular user validation and feedback loops are integral to the process.

• A growing design system is in place, serving as a foundation for new development.

Company Website: https://www.authorium.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: Authorium is positioned as a growth-stage GovTech company. The "small and high-leverage" product team structure implies a need for individuals who are comfortable taking initiative, working cross-functionally, and contributing across multiple facets of product development. The emphasis on agile, data-driven processes and user validation is standard for successful SaaS companies.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role represents a "Lead" position within the Product Design career ladder, positioned above "Product Designer" and "Associate Product Designer." It is a foundational leadership role, responsible for platform-level ownership and the initial build-out of the design function. This level requires not only deep individual contribution skills but also strategic thinking, mentorship, and the ability to set standards.

Reporting Structure: The Lead Product Designer reports directly to the Head of Product. They will also manage the existing Product Designer, establishing a direct reporting line and mentorship responsibility. This structure provides visibility to senior leadership and an opportunity to influence product strategy from a design perspective.

Operations Impact: The Lead Product Designer will have a direct and significant impact on Authorium's revenue and business decisions by:

• Ensuring the platform is intuitive and efficient for government agencies, which can lead to higher adoption rates, contract renewals, and expansion within agencies.

• Designing AI-powered features that demonstrably improve user productivity and reduce administrative burden, creating a strong value proposition.

• Maintaining and evolving a robust design system that accelerates engineering velocity, allowing the company to ship features faster and respond more effectively to market demands.

• Leading user research and data analysis to inform product strategy, ensuring development efforts are focused on areas with the highest potential impact and ROI.

Growth Opportunities:

• Design Function Leadership: Opportunity to build and scale the design team from its early stages, defining its culture, processes, and impact. This includes potential for future promotion to a Design Manager or Director role.

• Platform Strategy Ownership: Deep influence over the entire Authorium platform's user experience, product direction, and the integration of innovative technologies like AI.

• Skill Development in GovTech: Gaining specialized expertise in the unique challenges and opportunities within the government technology sector, a growing and impactful market.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Developing strong partnerships and influencing product strategy alongside Product Management and Engineering leadership.

• Mentorship: Growing leadership and coaching skills by mentoring the existing Product Designer and future hires.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role is framed as a significant opportunity to build and shape a critical function within a growing company. The career progression path is clearly defined, with opportunities for both individual contribution at a strategic level and people leadership. The impact on business outcomes is substantial, given the platform's core function for government agencies.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The company offers a Hybrid work arrangement. This typically means employees are expected to work from a physical office location for a portion of the week and remotely for the remainder. The specific days in the office will likely be determined by team needs and collaboration requirements, balancing in-person synergy with flexibility.

Office Location(s): The primary listed location is San Francisco, California, United States. Authorium is based in this tech hub, providing access to a vibrant ecosystem of talent and innovation. While the role is hybrid, candidates are expected to be located in or willing to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area to facilitate in-office collaboration.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The hybrid model and "small, high-leverage" team structure emphasize close collaboration. Expect frequent interaction with Product Managers, Engineers, and other designers, both in person and through digital collaboration tools.

• Tools & Technology: A modern tech stack is in place, including Figma for design, Jira for project management, and Pendo for product analytics. This indicates an environment that values efficient workflows and data-informed decision-making.

• Operations Team Interaction: The Lead Product Designer will work closely with the Product team and will also interface with Solutions and Client Success teams. This cross-functional exposure is crucial for understanding real-world user challenges and deployment contexts.

Work Schedule: While a standard 40-hour work week is implied, the hybrid nature and agile sprints suggest a degree of flexibility. The focus will be on meeting sprint goals, attending necessary meetings (both virtual and in-person), and ensuring timely delivery of design work, rather than strict adherence to 9-to-5. This flexibility can be beneficial for operations professionals who may need to balance deep work with collaborative sessions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid model in San Francisco suggests a company that values both in-person collaboration and employee flexibility. For operations professionals, understanding the balance between remote work and required office days is crucial for long-term fit. The tech stack mentioned is standard for modern product development teams.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A conversation with a recruiter or hiring manager to assess basic qualifications, experience alignment, and cultural fit.

• Portfolio Review & Design Challenge: A deep dive into your portfolio, likely involving a presentation of 1-2 key case studies. This may be followed by a take-home design challenge or an in-person/virtual design exercise focused on a specific problem Authorium faces. The challenge will likely assess your problem-solving skills, strategic thinking, and ability to design for complex workflows.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with Product Management, Engineering leads, and potentially other stakeholders. These interviews will focus on your collaboration style, ability to articulate design decisions, and understanding of technical constraints and product strategy.

• Leadership/Final Round: A meeting with senior leadership, potentially the Head of Product and/or CEO, to discuss your vision for the design function, leadership philosophy, and strategic alignment with Authorium's goals.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the design process, the solutions you implemented, and most importantly, the measurable outcomes (e.g., increased user adoption, improved efficiency, reduced errors, positive feedback). Quantify impact whenever possible.

• Showcase Systems Thinking: Demonstrate how you approach designing an entire platform rather than isolated features. Highlight consistency, coherence, and how your design decisions support the broader product ecosystem.

• Highlight AI Integration: Given Authorium's focus on AuthorAI, be prepared to discuss your experience designing for AI-driven features. Showcase how you ensured user trust, context-awareness, and intuitive interaction with AI components.

• Detail Your Process: Explain your methodology for user research, problem framing, ideation, prototyping, testing, and iteration. Be ready to discuss tradeoffs you made and why.

• Accessibility & Compliance: If possible, include examples where you've explicitly considered and designed for accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA) and compliance requirements, especially relevant for GovTech.

• Presentation Clarity: Structure your presentation logically, using clear visuals and concise explanations. Be prepared to answer in-depth questions about your design choices and rationale.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Problem: If given a challenge, ensure you fully grasp the user problem and business objectives. Ask clarifying questions.

• Embrace Ambiguity: Authorium operates in a fast-paced environment. Be comfortable making reasonable assumptions and proceeding with incomplete information, clearly stating your assumptions.

• Think Platform-First: Consider how your solution fits within the existing platform and design system.

• Focus on User Value & Business Goals: Your solution should demonstrably benefit users and align with Authorium's business objectives.

• Communicate Your Thinking: Clearly articulate your thought process, design decisions, and rationale throughout the challenge and during your presentation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process emphasizes a blend of individual design craft, strategic product thinking, leadership potential, and collaborative skills. The portfolio review is critical, and candidates should tailor their presentations to highlight experiences most relevant to Authorium's needs, particularly around enterprise SaaS, AI integration, and complex workflows.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: The core tool for all UX/UI design activities, including wireframing, prototyping, interface design, and component creation. Expert-level proficiency is a must.

• Jira: Used for agile project management, sprint planning, backlog grooming, and tracking design tasks through the development lifecycle. Familiarity with agile workflows and Jira is essential.

• Pendo: Utilized for product analytics, user behavior tracking, feature adoption monitoring, and gathering usage data to inform design decisions. Experience with Pendo or similar analytics platforms is highly preferred.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Pendo (primary): For comprehensive product usage analytics and user behavior insights.

• Internal Dashboards/Reporting: While not explicitly named, expect to interact with or contribute to reports generated from Pendo or other data sources to communicate design impact.

CRM & Automation:

AI Integration Tools:

• AuthorAI: The company's proprietary AI offering. The designer will be instrumental in shaping the UX of AuthorAI, likely involving tools for prompt engineering, AI output visualization, and user feedback mechanisms for AI performance.

• General AI Design Tools: Familiarity with AI-assisted design tools or platforms that enhance the design process (e.g., AI for generating design variations, content suggestions, or early-stage concepting) is preferred.

📝 Enhancement Note: The technology stack is geared towards modern agile product development. Proficiency in Figma and Jira is non-negotiable. Experience with product analytics (Pendo) is a significant plus, as data-driven design is a stated priority. The emphasis on AI integration means designers should be thinking about how to leverage AI tools and design for AI-powered features.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Building & Ownership: A strong emphasis on building processes, systems, and products from the ground up, with a sense of ownership over outcomes. This is reflected in the "founding design leadership role" and "building the design function" aspects.

• User-Centricity & Empathy: Deep understanding of complex government workflows and user needs, especially for users who may not be tech-savvy. Designing for usability and accessibility is paramount.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Utilizing product analytics (Pendo) and user research to inform design choices and prioritize initiatives, ensuring efforts are aligned with user value and business goals.

• Efficiency & Velocity: Operating in two-week sprints and using a design system to accelerate engineering delivery. A focus on streamlining processes and maximizing output.

• Calm Under Complexity: Aptitude for navigating ambiguous, high-stakes product work with structure and clarity, even when all information isn't initially defined.

Collaboration Style:

• Opinionated Collaboration: Bringing a strong point of view to discussions, backed by data and user insights, while also being adaptable and open to learning and evolving ideas based on feedback.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Close working relationships with Product Management and Engineering are essential, acting as co-owners of product outcomes. Collaboration extends to Solutions and Client Success for real-world context.

• Process Improvement Culture: An environment that encourages continuous refinement of workflows, design practices, and team processes for greater effectiveness.

• Knowledge Sharing: Encouraging open communication and sharing of insights, research findings, and best practices within the Product and Design teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture values proactive builders who can thrive in a growth-stage environment. The emphasis on "opinionated collaboration" suggests a desire for team members who can contribute actively and thoughtfully, not just passively execute. The "calm under complexity" value is particularly important for a lead role in a rapidly evolving company.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Building the Design Function: As the first design leader, establishing processes, setting quality standards, and potentially hiring future designers will be a significant undertaking requiring strategic foresight and execution.

• Designing for Complexity: Government workflows are inherently complex, data-intensive, and often involve users with low digital literacy or resistance to change. Translating these into intuitive digital experiences is a core challenge.

• Balancing Platform-Wide Ownership with Initiative Execution: Managing the entire platform's UX/UI while also driving specific epics from inception to delivery requires strong prioritization and time management skills.

• Integrating AI Thoughtfully: Ensuring AI features are genuinely helpful and seamlessly integrated, rather than a gimmick, requires careful design and user testing, especially in a compliance-driven sector.

• Ambiguity and Rapid Growth: Operating in a Series B company means constant evolution, potential shifts in priorities, and the need to adapt quickly to new information and business needs.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Leadership Development: Direct experience in building and leading a design team, honing mentorship, delegation, and strategic planning skills.

• Deep GovTech Expertise: Gaining in-depth knowledge of the unique challenges, regulatory landscape, and user behaviors within the government technology sector.

• AI UX Specialization: Becoming an expert in designing user experiences for AI-powered applications, a highly in-demand skill set.

• Product Strategy Influence: Direct involvement in shaping the product roadmap and strategic direction of Authorium, moving beyond pure design execution to product co-ownership.

• System Design Mastery: Refining skills in designing complex, interconnected digital systems at scale.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are inherent to a lead role in a growing startup. They also represent significant opportunities for professional development, particularly in leadership, strategic product thinking, and specialized AI UX design.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you took ownership of the UX/UI for an entire platform or a significant product area. What were the key challenges, and how did you ensure consistency and coherence?" (Focus on systems thinking, end-to-end ownership, and process.)

• "How would you approach integrating AI features into complex government workflows to ensure user adoption and trust, especially for users unfamiliar with AI?" (Prepare to discuss AI UX principles, user education, and context-aware design.)

• "Walk us through your process for conducting user research in a B2B/enterprise context. How do you translate qualitative and quantitative findings into actionable design improvements?" (Highlight methodology, synthesis, and impact.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Authorium's mission to transform government workflows?" (Research Authorium's product and the GovTech space.)

• "How do you see yourself building and leading a design function here, given it's a founding role?" (Discuss your leadership philosophy, team-building approach, and experience with establishing processes.)

• "Describe your experience working in an agile environment with an emphasis on collaboration between Product, Design, and Engineering." (Highlight your collaborative style and experience with tools like Jira.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each case study, follow a clear problem-solution-impact structure. Begin with the business/user problem, detail your user-centered design process, showcase your solutions (wireframes, mockups, prototypes), and conclude with the measurable results.

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, use metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs. If exact numbers aren't available, use qualitative feedback or observed improvements.

• Showcase Your Thinking: Don't just show pretty pictures. Explain the "why" behind your design choices, the tradeoffs you considered, and how you arrived at your final solutions.

• Highlight AI & Complexity: Explicitly call out projects involving AI integration and designs for complex, data-heavy, or workflow-driven applications.

• Demonstrate Leadership Potential: If you have experience mentoring or leading, weave those examples into your presentation or be ready to discuss them.

📝 Enhancement Note: Preparation should focus on demonstrating not only strong design craft but also strategic thinking, leadership acumen, and a deep understanding of enterprise SaaS and AI UX challenges. Candidates should be ready to articulate their vision for design at Authorium and how they can contribute to the company's growth.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Lead Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Workable.

• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight experience relevant to enterprise SaaS, B2B applications, platform-level design ownership, user research leadership, and AI integration. Use keywords from the job description.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest case studies that best represent your experience in complex workflows, platform design, and ideally, AI or regulated industries. Ensure each case study clearly outlines the problem, your process, your solution, and the impact.

• Prepare Your Presentation: Practice presenting your portfolio case studies, focusing on clear storytelling, quantifiable results, and articulating your strategic design thinking. Be ready to discuss your approach to leadership and building a design function.

• Research Authorium: Gain a thorough understanding of Authorium's product, mission, target market (GovTech), and recent company news (e.g., Series B funding). Understand the challenges of designing for government agencies.

⚠️ 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.

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