Senior Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Product Designer

Company: Merge API

Location: San Francisco, CA / New York City, NY

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / UX/UI Design

Date Posted: March 02, 2026

Experience Level: 7+ Years

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Serve as the senior design authority for Merge API's core platform, defining and driving the long-term design vision.

• Translate complex, high-level business objectives and ambiguous problems into elegant, concrete design solutions and frameworks.

• Act as a strong advocate for the user, pushing the entire organization to maintain an exceptionally high standard of polish and simplicity in all product interactions.

• Operate with significant autonomy and initiative, proactively identifying and solving product or process gaps before they escalate.

• Drive the evolution and adoption of the design system, ensuring it supports speed, consistency, and a premium user experience.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as the most senior individual contributor designer, implying a significant leadership and strategic influence beyond typical senior designer roles. The emphasis on "agentic tools" and "frontier LLMs" suggests a need for designers comfortable with highly technical and cutting-edge product domains, particularly those involving APIs and developer-facing interfaces.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Strategic Vision Setting: Define and articulate the long-term design vision for Merge's core platform, ensuring all feature-level designs contribute to a cohesive and elite user experience that aligns with business strategy.

• Problem Solving & Design Execution: Tackle the most complex, multi-sided technical workflows within the platform, simplifying them into intuitive and user-friendly experiences for developers and enterprise clients.

• Design System Architecture: Own, architect, and continuously evolve Merge's design system, ensuring it not only provides robust components but also enforces a philosophy of speed, consistency, and a distinct "Merge-level" polish.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner closely with founders and leadership across all departments (product, engineering, sales) to translate business strategy into a tangible product roadmap, utilizing high-fidelity prototyping and vision work.

• User Advocacy & Research: Lead deep-dive customer research initiatives and usability testing to uncover friction points, validate core product hypotheses, and champion user needs throughout the product development lifecycle.

• Craftsmanship & Quality Assurance: Relentlessly focus on pixel-perfect execution and hold cross-functional peers accountable to an exceptionally high standard of design excellence that differentiates Merge from competitors.

• Mentorship & Team Elevation: Raise the overall design bar for the entire team by conducting rigorous design reviews, providing direct mentorship, and clearly defining and communicating "what good looks like" at Merge.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of individual contribution and strategic influence. The emphasis on "owning the system" and "driving strategy" suggests the need for a designer who can operate independently and shape the design direction of the company, not just execute on assigned tasks.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

Experience:

• 7+ years of progressive product design experience.

• Significant portion of experience must be dedicated to leading design for complex, technical B2B or developer-facing products.

• Demonstrated experience in "zero-to-one" initiatives, taking product concepts from ideation to launch.

• Proven track record of scaling design systems that have demonstrably influenced the trajectory of an entire product or organization.

Required Skills:

• Product Design Mastery: Deep expertise in the end-to-end product design process, from user research and ideation to high-fidelity prototyping and visual design.

• Design System Leadership: Proven ability to architect, build, scale, and govern a comprehensive design system, ensuring its adoption and effectiveness.

• Technical Fluency: Strong understanding of technical constraints, API structures, data models, and the implementation process, enabling effective collaboration with engineering teams.

• Systems Thinking: Ability to design logical, interconnected systems, states, and workflows that function reliably and efficiently at scale, rather than just individual screens or features.

• User Research & Validation: Proficiency in conducting user research, usability testing, and employing data analysis to inform design decisions and validate hypotheses.

• Communication & Storytelling: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate design rationale compellingly, present to executive leadership, and influence stakeholders.

• High Agency & Ownership: Demonstrated initiative, proactivity, and a strong sense of ownership to identify and solve problems independently.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with AI/ML products or platforms.

• Familiarity with integration platforms or API-first products.

• Experience mentoring junior designers or leading small design teams.

• Expertise in specific design tools and prototyping software relevant to complex B2B/developer tools.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "staff-level impact" requirement suggests the need for a designer who has not only executed but also strategically influenced product direction and design practice at a senior level. The emphasis on technical fluency and systems thinking is critical for a role designing for developers and complex APIs.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Case Studies Demonstrating Strategic Impact: Showcase 2-3 detailed case studies that highlight your role in leading "zero-to-one" initiatives or significantly scaling a design system. Focus on the problem, your unique approach, challenges overcome, and quantifiable outcomes.

• Complex B2B/Developer-Facing Product Examples: Include examples of designing for intricate, multi-sided technical workflows, APIs, or developer tools, demonstrating your ability to simplify complexity.

• Design System Ownership: Provide evidence of your involvement in architecting, building, or significantly evolving a design system, detailing its components, governance, and impact on product consistency and development speed.

• Demonstration of High Agency: Highlight instances where you proactively identified a critical product or process gap and drove the solution to completion without explicit direction.

• Focus on Process & Methodology: Clearly articulate your design process, including how you approach ambiguity, conduct research, collaborate with engineering, and ensure a high level of polish.

Process Documentation:

• Be prepared to discuss how you document design decisions, maintain design system integrity, and contribute to process improvements within the design and product development lifecycle.

• Demonstrate an understanding of how to translate your design process into actionable steps for other team members and cross-functional partners.

📝 Enhancement Note: A portfolio for this role must go beyond showcasing aesthetics; it needs to prove strategic thinking, leadership in scaling design practices, and the ability to handle highly technical, complex problem spaces. The emphasis on "systems thinking" and "design system architecture" means the portfolio should reflect these capabilities prominently.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• The cash compensation range for this role is $175,000 - $190,000 USD per year.

Benefits:

• Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO): Encourages work-life balance and allows for flexible time away from work.

• 10 Company Holidays: Provides designated paid days off throughout the year.

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: 100% covered health, vision, and dental insurance for employees, ensuring access to essential medical care.

• 401K Plan: Retirement savings plan to support long-term financial planning.

• Home Office Stipend: A one-time $200 stipend to help equip a home workspace, promoting productivity and comfort for remote or hybrid setups (though this role is on-site, it may apply to occasional remote work or home setup).

• Free Dinner: Provided for employees working past 7 PM, acknowledging and supporting extended working hours.

Working Hours:

• The standard full-time work week is typically 40 hours. However, given the "high-growth, in-office environments" and the expectation to be a "self-starter who defines their own work," flexibility and dedication beyond standard hours may be required, especially during critical project phases or for late-night collaborations, as indicated by the free dinner benefit.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is explicitly provided. The benefits package is robust, with a strong emphasis on health and well-being, alongside financial and home office support. The mention of free dinner acknowledges potential for extended working hours typical in fast-paced startups.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry:

Company Size:

Founded:

Team Structure:

• The role is the "most senior individual designer," implying that while there might be other designers, this individual will set the strategic direction for design.

• The designer will report to leadership (likely Head of Product or a Founder) and collaborate closely with Product Managers, Engineers, and potentially leadership across sales and marketing.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Product Development: The company leverages customer research, usability testing, and product analytics to inform design decisions and validate hypotheses.

• Agile & Iterative Design: The fast-paced environment suggests an iterative approach to design and development, with a focus on speed and continuous improvement.

• Systemic Design Approach: Emphasis on building scalable design systems and logical, interconnected frameworks rather than isolated features.

• High-Performance Culture: Expectation of high ownership, proactivity, and a relentless pursuit of excellence ("sweat the pixels").

Company Website:

• https://merge.dev/

📝 Enhancement Note: Merge API is positioned as a leader in a cutting-edge tech sector. The culture appears to be fast-paced, focused on technical excellence, user advocacy, and high individual contribution, typical of successful, rapidly scaling B2B SaaS startups.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level:

Reporting Structure:

Operations Impact:

• The impact of this role is significant and direct. By defining the "North Star" for design, architecting the design system, and simplifying complex technical workflows, the Senior Product Designer directly influences:
  • Developer Adoption: How easily and effectively developers can integrate with Merge's platform.
  • Customer Evaluation: The perception of Merge's product quality and sophistication.
  • Product Velocity: The speed at which new features can be built and iterated upon due to a robust design system.
  • User Experience Excellence: The overall satisfaction and retention of customers using Merge's products.
  • Competitive Differentiation: Upholding a standard of polish and simplicity that sets Merge apart in a crowded market.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership in Design Practice: Grow into a Design Lead or Head of Design role as the company scales, building and managing a design team.

• Strategic Product Influence: Deepen influence on product strategy and company direction, potentially contributing to new product initiatives or market expansion.

• Specialization in Emerging Tech: Become a leading expert in designing for AI agents, LLMs, and complex API integrations.

• Mentorship and Skill Development: Develop leadership and mentorship skills by actively guiding and elevating other designers within the team.

• Broader Technical Domain Expertise: Gain deeper understanding of enterprise software, API ecosystems, and the challenges faced by developers and large organizations.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a rare opportunity for a senior individual contributor to have substantial strategic impact and shape the future of design within a high-growth, technically advanced company. The growth path is clearly towards leadership and advanced strategic influence.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type:

Office Location(s):

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The emphasis on "in-office" and "cultural force" suggests an environment where designers work closely with product managers and engineers, fostering a culture of shared ownership and rapid iteration.

• Tools & Technology: While not explicitly detailed, expect a modern tech stack for design and development, including industry-standard design software (Figma, Sketch), prototyping tools, and collaboration platforms.

• Operations Team Interaction: The Senior Product Designer will be deeply integrated into product development cycles, interacting daily with engineering and product teams, and regularly with founders and leadership.

Work Schedule:

• The role is full-time, typically implying a standard 40-hour work week. However, the mention of "high-growth" and the "free dinner" benefit suggest that flexibility and a willingness to invest additional time when needed are expected. The "on-site" nature implies a consistent presence in the office.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "on-site" requirement and the mention of "high-growth, in-office environments" indicate a preference for in-person collaboration and a culture that values direct interaction for speed and innovation.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

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

• Portfolio Presentation & Deep Dive: A dedicated session where the candidate presents their portfolio, walking through key case studies. This is where the emphasis on strategic impact, complex problem-solving, and design system leadership will be scrutinized. Expect questions about your process, decision-making, and impact.

• Design Challenge/Exercise: A take-home assignment or a live whiteboarding session focused on a complex design problem relevant to Merge's platform. This will assess your problem-solving skills, systems thinking, and ability to articulate solutions under pressure.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Interviews with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and potentially Founders. These will focus on technical fluency, collaboration style, ability to handle ambiguity, and cultural alignment.

• Final Interview: Likely with a senior executive or founder to discuss vision, strategic alignment, and overall fit for the company's trajectory.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Prioritize Strategic Impact: For each case study, clearly articulate the business problem, your strategic approach, the specific design challenges you addressed (especially technical complexity or ambiguity), your unique contributions, and the measurable outcomes. Quantify impact whenever possible (e.g., improved conversion rates, reduced development time, increased adoption).

• Showcase Systems Thinking: Highlight projects where you designed interconnected systems, defined states, or built scalable frameworks. Detail your experience with design systems, including their architecture, governance, and impact.

• Demonstrate Technical Fluency: Be prepared to discuss the technical constraints you worked within, your understanding of APIs, data structures, and how your designs were implemented. Use precise language when discussing technical aspects.

• Highlight Ambiguity Navigation: Present examples where you took a "fuzzy" problem and defined a clear path forward through design. Explain how you gathered information, made decisions with incomplete data, and managed uncertainty.

• Tell a Compelling Story: Structure your presentations with a clear narrative arc: problem, approach, solution, results. Practice articulating your thought process and design rationale concisely and persuasively.

• Focus on "Merge-Level" Polish: Ensure your portfolio presentation itself is polished, professional, and demonstrates attention to detail.

Challenge Preparation:

• Deconstruct the Problem: For any design challenge, take time to fully understand the prompt, identify the core problem, and clarify any ambiguities with the interviewer.

• Think Systemically: Consider the broader implications of your design choices beyond just the user interface. How does it fit into the existing system? What are the technical considerations?

• Articulate Trade-offs: Be prepared to discuss design trade-offs, why you made certain choices, and what alternatives you considered.

• Practice Presenting: Rehearse explaining your design process and solutions clearly and concisely, as if presenting to a mixed audience of designers, product managers, and engineers.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process emphasizes strategic thinking, technical understanding, and the ability to lead design initiatives. Candidates should prepare to demonstrate not just design skills but also business acumen and leadership potential.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma is likely the primary tool, given its industry prevalence for collaborative design and prototyping. Sketch and Adobe Creative Suite might also be relevant.

• Prototyping Tools: InVision, Principle, or advanced Figma prototyping features for creating interactive mockups and user flows.

• Design System Management: Tools or processes for managing and documenting design system components, guidelines, and usage (e.g., Zeroheight, Storybook integration, or internal documentation platforms).

Analytics & Reporting:

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

• User Feedback Platforms: Tools for collecting and organizing user feedback, such as Canny, UserVoice, or internal survey tools.

• Data Visualization: Potentially tools like Tableau or Looker for deeper data analysis, though primary focus will be on design-related metrics.

CRM & Automation:

• While not a direct design tool, understanding how designs translate into CRM workflows (e.g., Salesforce) or marketing automation platforms (e.g., HubSpot) can be beneficial for context in B2B products.

• Collaboration & Project Management: Jira, Asana, Trello, or similar platforms for tracking design tasks, bug reporting, and sprint planning.

• Communication: Slack for real-time team communication.

📝 Enhancement Note: The technology stack will likely include industry-standard design tools, with a strong emphasis on collaborative platforms and tools that support design system management and user research. Familiarity with developer-centric tools and workflows is also crucial.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Design Excellence & Polish: A core value is maintaining an exceptionally high bar for design quality, detail, and user experience ("sweat the pixels," "Merge-level" polish).

• User-Centricity: A relentless advocacy for the user, ensuring that design decisions are grounded in customer needs and validated through research.

• High Agency & Ownership: A culture where individuals are empowered and expected to take initiative, identify problems, and drive solutions independently.

• Speed & Iteration: Operating in a fast-paced environment that values rapid prototyping, iterative development, and quick adaptation.

• Technical Fluency & Collaboration: A commitment to understanding and respecting the technical constraints of engineering, fostering strong partnerships between design and development.

• Systemic Thinking: Valuing the design of robust, scalable systems and frameworks over isolated features.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Design is deeply integrated into product development, working hand-in-hand with Product Managers and Engineers from ideation through launch.

• Opinionated Advocacy: Designers are encouraged to be highly opinionated about user experience and product direction, but also to "disagree and commit" effectively with leadership.

• Rigorous Design Reviews: A culture of constructive critique and feedback through regular design reviews to uphold quality standards.

• Knowledge Sharing: Encouraging the sharing of best practices, learnings, and insights across the design team and with other departments.

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture at Merge API appears to be driven by a passion for cutting-edge technology, a commitment to user experience, and a high-performance ethos that values ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Navigating Ambiguity: Tackling novel problems in emerging fields like agentic tools and LLMs, where established design patterns may not exist.

• Balancing Technical Complexity with Simplicity: Designing intuitive interfaces for highly technical workflows and APIs that developers and enterprise clients will adopt.

• Scaling Design Systems: Evolving a design system to support rapid growth and increasing product complexity without becoming a bottleneck.

• Maintaining High Standards: Upholding an elite level of design polish and user experience while operating at high velocity in a fast-growing company.

• Influencing Across Departments: Effectively advocating for design vision and user needs to founders, engineering, and other stakeholders who may have different priorities.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Expertise in AI/LLM Integrations: Becoming a leading designer in the rapidly evolving AI and integration platform space.

• Strategic Design Leadership: Developing skills in defining product vision, scaling design practices, and mentoring other designers.

• Advanced Systems Design: Refining expertise in designing complex, interconnected systems and robust design architectures.

• Industry Recognition: Contributing to products recognized on major industry lists (Forbes, G2, LinkedIn) provides significant professional validation.

• Mentorship: Opportunities to mentor junior designers and contribute to building the design team's capabilities.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role presents significant challenges in a cutting-edge technological domain, offering substantial opportunities for professional growth and specialization in high-demand areas of product design.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you defined the design vision for a complex product or platform. What was your process, and what was the outcome?" (Focus on strategic thinking, long-term vision, and measurable impact.)

• "How do you approach designing for highly technical or developer-facing products, particularly those involving APIs or complex data structures? Can you walk us through an example?" (Prepare a case study showcasing technical fluency and simplification of complexity.)

• "Tell me about a situation where you had to navigate significant ambiguity to arrive at a design solution. How did you define the problem and move forward?" (Showcase your problem-solving methodology and ability to create clarity.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "Why Merge API? What excites you about our mission and our position in the market?" (Research Merge's products, mission, and recent achievements.)

• "How do you ensure a user-centric approach in a fast-paced, technically-driven environment? How do you balance user needs with business goals and technical constraints?" (Demonstrate your understanding of user advocacy and pragmatic design.)

• "Describe your ideal collaboration dynamic with Product Managers and Engineers. How do you handle disagreements and ensure alignment?" (Emphasize partnership, clear communication, and the ability to disagree and commit.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure for Impact: Begin with a high-level overview of your career and key strengths. For each case study, clearly state the problem, your role, the scope, the process, your key contributions, and the results.

• Focus on "Why": Articulate the rationale behind your design decisions, not just what you designed. Explain the trade-offs you considered and why you chose a particular path.

• Quantify Results: Whenever possible, use data and metrics to demonstrate the impact of your work. This is crucial for a role that values tangible outcomes.

• Showcase Systems Thinking: Dedicate time to explaining how your designs fit into larger systems, how you approached scalability, and your experience with design systems.

• Practice and Pace: Rehearse your presentation to ensure it flows logically, stays within the allotted time, and allows for interaction. Be prepared to go deeper into specific aspects of your work based on interviewer interest.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating strategic thinking, technical understanding, leadership potential, and a deep commitment to design excellence, aligning with Merge's stated values and the demands of a staff-level role in a high-growth tech company.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided Greenhouse link.

• Portfolio Customization: Tailor your portfolio to highlight projects that demonstrate your experience with complex, technical B2B or developer-facing products, your ability to lead "zero-to-one" initiatives, and your expertise in design systems. Clearly articulate your strategic contributions and quantifiable outcomes.

• Resume Optimization: Ensure your resume clearly outlines your 7+ years of experience, emphasizing leadership in design, technical fluency, and systems thinking. Use keywords from the job description such as "design vision," "design systems," "technical workflows," and "high agency."

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your design process, rationale, and impact. Prepare specific examples that showcase your ability to navigate ambiguity, collaborate effectively, and drive design excellence. Be ready to present your portfolio compellingly.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Merge API's products, mission, recent achievements, and company culture. Understand their position in the market and the challenges they are addressing, particularly in the LLM and API integration space.

⚠️ 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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