Sr. Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Sr. Product Designer

Company: Smarter Technologies

Location: Austin, TX, United States / Remote

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / User Experience (UX) Design

Date Posted: March 04, 2026

Experience Level: 5-10 years

Remote Status: Fully Remote (with optional Austin, TX presence)

🚀 Role Summary

• Design and evolve cutting-edge interfaces for AI-powered healthcare automation, focusing on revenue cycle management (RCM) and human-AI collaboration.

• Develop and maintain a robust, accessible design system to ensure consistency and efficiency across all product surfaces.

• Champion user advocacy and accessibility standards (WCAG) throughout the product development lifecycle, from concept to pixel-perfect execution.

• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including product management, customer success, and engineering to translate complex user needs and business requirements into intuitive product experiences.

• Leverage modern design tools, including AI-assisted technologies, to accelerate research, ideation, and prototyping processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a critical second designer within a small, agile R&D team, offering significant influence over greenfield product development in a complex, high-stakes domain (healthcare RCM). The emphasis on "first-principles design" and "AI-native interfaces" indicates a need for innovative problem-solving and a departure from traditional UI patterns.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design System Development & Evolution: Lead the creation, maintenance, and documentation of a comprehensive, reusable, and accessible component library. Ensure the design system supports rapid iteration and empowers both design and engineering teams.

• User Experience & Interface Design: Own the end-to-end design process for new product features and surfaces, translating complex RCM workflows and AI agent interactions into intuitive, high-fidelity prototypes and final designs.

• Accessibility & Performance Advocacy: Act as the primary advocate for WCAG compliance and high-performance design principles, ensuring all interfaces are inclusive, accessible, and performant across various devices and user needs.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Product Managers to define product strategy, with Engineers to ensure pixel-perfect implementation and feasibility, and with Customer Success to gather user feedback and incorporate real-world insights.

• AI-Native Experience Design: Design interfaces that facilitate trust, transparency, and effective collaboration between human users and autonomous AI agents within the RCM process.

• User Research & Advocacy: Conduct user research, gather feedback, and synthesize insights to drive product decisions and continuously improve the user experience, acting as the voice of the user within the R&D team.

• Tooling Innovation: Explore, adopt, and champion the use of AI-assisted design tools and modern technologies to enhance design productivity and innovation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a need for a designer who can operate independently and strategically, taking ownership of significant product areas. The emphasis on "greenfield products" and "no legacy constraints" suggests a focus on innovative solutions rather than incremental improvements.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio demonstrating equivalent practical experience and a deep understanding of design principles, UI/UX best practices, and human-computer interaction is paramount.

Experience: 5+ years of product design experience, with a strong preference for fast-paced software or AI companies. Experience in designing complex, data-rich, or workflow-heavy products is essential.

Required Skills:

• Product Design Expertise: Proven ability to manage the full product design lifecycle, from concept generation to high-fidelity prototyping and execution.

• Design System Proficiency: Experience building, maintaining, and scaling design systems and component libraries.

• Accessibility Standards: Deep understanding and practical application of WCAG guidelines and inclusive design principles.

• Systems Thinking: Ability to conceptualize and design complex systems, distilling them into intuitive user flows, interactions, and scalable frameworks.

• AI/ML Design Experience: Familiarity with designing user experiences for AI-powered applications, including concepts like agent behavior, trust-building, and system transparency.

• Data Visualization & Complex Interfaces: Demonstrated skill in designing interfaces for data-rich environments, especially those involving complex workflows.

• Prototyping: Proficiency in creating high-fidelity interactive prototypes to effectively communicate design concepts and user flows.

• Communication & Collaboration: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to present and defend design decisions clearly and effectively to diverse stakeholders.

• Agile & Iterative Mindset: A strong bias for action, rapid iteration, and continuous learning in a dynamic environment.

Preferred Skills:

• Healthcare/RCM Domain Knowledge: Familiarity with the healthcare industry, particularly revenue cycle management (RCM), administrative, or financial workflows.

• Technical Design Collaboration: Understanding of front-end development concepts, particularly with React, and familiarity with component libraries like shadcn, or charting libraries such as Highcharts, Recharts, or ReactFlow.

• AI Research Tooling: Experience using AI-native and non-AI research tools (e.g., Pendo, Dovetail, UserTesting.com, Claude, NotebookLM) and a well-formed perspective on their effective application.

• B2B/Platform/Developer Tools Design: Experience designing for technical users or complex enterprise platforms.

• Vibe Coding Workflows: Familiarity with collaborative coding environments and integrating design systems within AI-assisted development processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Bonus Points" section strongly suggests that candidates with direct experience in modern web technologies (React, shadcn) and data visualization libraries will have a significant advantage, as will those who can articulate a strategic approach to using AI in the design process.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Case Studies of Complex Systems: Showcase 2-3 detailed case studies demonstrating your ability to tackle complex, data-rich, or workflow-heavy product challenges from initial problem definition through to final solution.

• Design System Contribution: Include examples of your work on design systems, illustrating component design, documentation standards, and how you promoted adoption and consistency.

• AI/ML Interaction Design: Present examples of designing for AI-powered experiences, highlighting how you addressed user trust, transparency, and collaboration with intelligent agents.

• End-to-End Ownership: Demonstrate experience across the entire product lifecycle, from zero-to-one product ideation and prototyping to iterating on established systems.

• Accessibility Focus: Highlight specific instances where you championed and implemented accessibility best practices (WCAG) in your designs.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Optimization: Clearly articulate the problem, your design process, the trade-offs considered, and the measurable outcomes of your design solutions, focusing on how you streamlined complex workflows.

• Systemic Design Thinking: Illustrate how you approach designing scalable frameworks and shared patterns, demonstrating a systems-level perspective rather than isolated feature design.

• User-Centered Design Process: Document your approach to user research, feedback synthesis, and how user insights directly informed design decisions and iterations.

📝 Enhancement Note: Candidates should prepare to walk through their portfolio, not just showing final screens, but detailing the "why" behind their design decisions, the challenges faced, and the impact of their work, particularly in complex operational or technical domains.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on the provided California Salary Range ($170,000 - $230,000 USD) and the Sr. Product Designer title with 5+ years of experience, this range is competitive for major tech hubs and remote roles in the US. For Austin, TX, this falls within the upper quartile for senior design roles. For fully remote positions, this range is generally applicable across the US, though cost-of-living adjustments might be considered by some organizations.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision insurance plans.

• Competitive Equity/Stock Options: Potential for ownership in a growing tech company.

• 401(k) Plan: Retirement savings plan with potential company match.

• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO): Includes vacation, sick leave, and holidays.

• Professional Development: Budget for conferences, training, and continuous learning.

• Home Office Stipend: Support for setting up an effective remote workspace.

• Wellness Programs: Initiatives focused on employee well-being.

Working Hours: Typically a 40-hour work week, with flexibility for remote employees to manage their schedules, provided core collaboration hours are met. Occasional overtime may be required during critical project phases.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is specific to California but is a strong indicator for this senior-level role, especially given the company's focus on AI and technology. The benefits package is likely to be competitive for a well-funded tech startup.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology, specifically focused on AI-Powered Healthcare Automation and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM). This places Smarter Technologies at the intersection of healthcare innovation, AI/ML development, and business process optimization.

Company Size: While not explicitly stated, the mention of a "small, autonomous R&D team" and the hiring of the "second designer" suggests a company that is likely in its growth phase, possibly a Series A or B funded startup, or an established company with a dedicated innovation arm. This implies a dynamic, fast-paced environment.

Founded: Not specified, but the focus on "greenfield products" and "modern stack" indicates a relatively young company or a new initiative within an existing organization.

Team Structure:

• R&D Team: Small, autonomous, and focused on new product development. This team likely operates with a high degree of independence.

• Design Team: The designer will be the second on the team, reporting directly to the founding designer, indicating a close working relationship and significant mentorship opportunity.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Integral to the role, involving close work with Product, Customer Success, and Engineering.

Methodology:

• AI-Native Product Development: Emphasis on building products that leverage AI agents and facilitate human-AI collaboration.

• First-Principles Design: Tackling complex problems by re-examining fundamental assumptions, rather than relying on existing patterns.

• Agile & Iterative Development: A focus on rapid iteration, continuous learning, and quick feedback loops.

• Data-Driven Design: Utilizing data and user feedback to inform design decisions and measure impact.

Company Website: Smarter Technologies (URL not provided, but assumed to be smartertechnologies.com based on domain_derived).

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's mission to "revolutionize healthcare" through AI automation suggests a culture driven by innovation, impact, and a desire to solve complex, meaningful problems. The R&D team's focus implies a culture that values experimentation and pushing boundaries.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is classified as "Senior Product Designer," indicating a mid-to-senior level position. It requires a significant level of autonomy, strategic thinking, and the ability to mentor or guide less experienced team members (like the founding designer's role in relation to this hire).

Reporting Structure: The Senior Product Designer will report directly to the Founding Designer, offering a clear line of mentorship and direct access to leadership within the R&D team.

Operations Impact: While this is a Product Design role, its impact is deeply tied to operational efficiency within healthcare. By designing intuitive interfaces for AI-powered RCM, the designer directly contributes to automating administrative and financial workflows, reducing operational costs, improving patient experiences, and driving revenue optimization for healthcare organizations. The success of the product is directly linked to its ability to streamline and improve these core operations.

Growth Opportunities:

• Founding Team Member Impact: As one of the earliest designers, you'll have a profound impact on the product's direction and the company's design culture.

• Leadership Potential: Opportunity to grow into a Design Lead or Head of Design role as the company scales.

• Specialization in AI/Healthcare Design: Develop deep expertise in a high-demand, complex field.

• Mentorship: Learn directly from the Founding Designer and contribute to the growth of future design hires.

• Skill Expansion: Opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies and AI-assisted design tools, expanding your technical and strategic design toolkit.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role offers a unique opportunity for significant impact and career advancement due to its greenfield nature and the company's mission. The close reporting line to the founding designer suggests a steep learning curve and high visibility.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The company offers both an office presence in Austin, TX, and fully remote options. This suggests a hybrid-flexible work environment.

Office Location(s): Austin, TX, United States. The remote option allows for broader geographic reach.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The emphasis on cross-functional partnership and reporting to the founding designer implies a highly collaborative atmosphere, whether in-person or remote.

• Modern Tooling: Access to and encouragement to use modern design and AI-assisted tools is a key aspect of the workspace.

• Autonomy & Ownership: The "small, autonomous R&D team" structure means designers will have a high degree of autonomy in their work.

Work Schedule: Standard 40-hour work week is expected, with flexibility inherent in the remote work arrangement. This allows operations professionals to manage their time effectively, balancing deep work sessions with collaborative meetings.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote-first or remote-friendly nature of the role, coupled with an optional office in Austin, caters to a modern workforce that values flexibility while still providing opportunities for in-person connection if desired.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Review of resume and portfolio to assess alignment with requirements.

• Portfolio Presentation & Discussion: A deep dive into 2-3 selected case studies from your portfolio, focusing on your process, problem-solving, design decisions, and impact. Expect detailed questions about your role, the challenges, and the outcomes.

• Design Challenge/Exercise: Likely a take-home assignment or a live design exercise focused on a complex problem relevant to healthcare RCM or AI interaction design. This will test your ability to apply your skills to specific scenarios.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with Product Managers, Engineers, and potentially Customer Success to assess collaboration skills, technical understanding, and cultural fit.

• Founder/Leadership Interview: A final discussion with company leadership to evaluate strategic thinking, vision alignment, and overall fit for the company's mission.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Tell a Story: Structure your case studies as narratives, clearly outlining the problem, your approach, the challenges, your solutions, and the measurable results.

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Use visuals (wireframes, mockups, prototypes, user flows) to illustrate your process and final designs.

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, include metrics that demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., improved conversion rates, reduced task completion time, increased user satisfaction scores).

• Highlight Collaboration: Explain how you worked with other teams (engineering, product) and how you incorporated their feedback.

• Demonstrate Systems Thinking: Showcase examples where you designed scalable patterns or contributed to a design system.

• Address AI/Complexity: Explicitly discuss your approach to designing for complex systems or AI-powered features.

Challenge Preparation:

• Embrace Ambiguity: Be prepared to tackle problems with incomplete information; demonstrate how you seek clarity and make reasoned assumptions.

• Focus on Process: Even if you can't fully solve a complex problem in the allotted time, clearly articulate your thought process and the steps you would take.

• User-Centricity: Always anchor your solutions in user needs and business goals.

• Feasibility: Consider technical constraints and designer-engineer collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is designed to rigorously assess both design craft and strategic thinking within the context of complex operational domains and emerging AI technologies. A well-curated portfolio that showcases problem-solving capabilities is crucial.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (as a baseline). The company likely uses a primary tool for UI design and prototyping.

• Design System Management: Tools for component library management, documentation, and version control (e.g., Zeroheight, Storybook, or internal systems).

• AI-Assisted Design Tools: Exploratory use of AI tools for research, ideation, content generation, and potentially code generation assistance. Examples mentioned include Claude, NotebookLM.

Analytics & Reporting:

• User Behavior Analytics: Tools like Pendo, Amplitude, Mixpanel for understanding user interaction patterns and product usage.

• User Feedback Platforms: UserTesting.com, Hotjar, or similar for qualitative feedback and usability testing.

CRM & Automation: While not directly a designer's tool, understanding how design impacts CRM and automation workflows (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) is beneficial for B2B product design.

Development Frameworks (for collaboration):

• Frontend Libraries: React is explicitly mentioned as a bonus, indicating a React-based front-end.

• Component Libraries/Frameworks: shadcn/ui is a specific mention, suggesting a modern component system.

• Charting Libraries: Highcharts, Recharts are mentioned, crucial for data-rich interfaces in RCM.

• Diagramming/Flow Libraries: ReactFlow is mentioned, important for visualizing complex workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in modern design tools like Figma is expected. The "bonus points" strongly hint at a front-end stack involving React, shadcn, and specific charting/diagramming libraries, highlighting the importance of designers understanding the technical ecosystem they are designing for.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Innovation & Impact: A drive to revolutionize healthcare through cutting-edge AI and automation, focusing on tangible operational improvements.

• User-Centricity: Deep empathy for users and a commitment to solving their complex problems with intuitive solutions.

• Collaboration & Transparency: Open communication, shared ownership, and a culture of constructive feedback among team members and across departments.

• Systems Thinking & Polish: A dedication to designing scalable, well-crafted systems with meticulous attention to detail.

• Bias for Action & Continuous Learning: A proactive approach to problem-solving and a commitment to staying ahead of industry trends and technologies.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Expect close partnerships with Product, Engineering, and Customer Success, requiring strong communication and the ability to translate between disciplines.

• Feedback-Rich Environment: A culture that encourages giving and receiving constructive feedback to drive continuous improvement in design and product.

• Agile & Iterative: Working in short cycles, with frequent check-ins and opportunities to iterate based on new learnings and feedback.

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture likely values individuals who are proactive, adaptable, and enjoy working in a fast-paced, innovative environment where they can make a significant impact. The "first-principles" approach suggests a comfort with challenging the status quo.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Designing for Complexity: Tackling the inherent complexity of healthcare RCM and AI agent interactions requires deep problem-solving and a systematic approach.

• Establishing New Patterns: Working in a "greenfield" environment means there are no established UI/UX patterns for many of the problems, requiring innovative, first-principles design.

• Balancing Innovation with Usability: Ensuring that cutting-edge AI interfaces are still intuitive, trustworthy, and accessible to users with varying technical proficiencies.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Effectively communicating and aligning design vision with engineering constraints, product strategy, and customer needs.

• Rapid Iteration & Ambiguity: Navigating a fast-paced environment with evolving requirements and limited historical data.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• AI Design Specialization: Deepen expertise in designing for AI, agent behavior, and human-AI collaboration.

• Healthcare RCM Domain Expertise: Gain in-depth knowledge of a critical, complex industry.

• Design System Leadership: Evolve into a leader for the company's design system.

• Technical Skill Enhancement: Collaborate closely with engineers, potentially gaining exposure to modern front-end technologies like React and related libraries.

• Mentorship & Career Growth: Direct mentorship from the Founding Designer and potential for leadership roles as the company scales.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are significant but also represent prime opportunities for professional growth and skill development in a highly relevant and future-oriented field.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you designed a complex, data-rich interface. What were the key challenges, and how did you approach them?" (Focus on process, trade-offs, and outcomes.)

• "How would you approach designing an interface for a human user to collaborate with an AI agent that performs financial reconciliation tasks?" (Test AI design thinking, trust, transparency, and workflow integration.)

• "Imagine we need to build a new component for our design system. Walk me through your process from identifying the need to delivering the final, documented component." (Assess design system thinking and documentation skills.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you most about Smarter Technologies' mission to automate healthcare RCM?" (Gauge alignment with company goals.)

• "How do you approach working in a small, fast-paced R&D team with a lot of ambiguity?" (Assess adaptability and comfort with startup environments.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Focus on Process: For each case study, clearly explain the problem statement, your role, the research conducted, ideation process, design decisions (and why), iterations, and final outcomes.

• Quantify Outcomes: Use numbers to demonstrate the impact of your work (e.g., "reduced user error by 15%", "increased task completion efficiency by 20%").

• Showcase Technical Understanding: When discussing your designs, be prepared to talk about how they interact with underlying systems or how they might be implemented, especially regarding the mentioned tech stack (React, shadcn, charting libs).

• Highlight Systems Thinking: Explicitly point out how your work contributes to a larger system or design framework.

📝 Enhancement Note: Prepare to discuss your design process in detail, demonstrate strategic thinking, and articulate how you've handled complexity and ambiguity. Emphasize your ability to collaborate and your understanding of modern design and development workflows.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Sr. Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Greenhouse.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest case studies that best highlight your experience with complex systems, AI-driven products, and design system contributions. Tailor the presentation to emphasize your process, problem-solving skills, and quantifiable impact.

• Tailor Your Resume: Ensure your resume clearly articulates your 5+ years of product design experience, highlighting achievements relevant to fast-paced software/AI companies, complex interfaces, and design system work. Use keywords from the job description.

• Prepare Your Narrative: Practice articulating your design process, your approach to challenges, and your understanding of the healthcare RCM or AI design space. Be ready to discuss your portfolio items in depth.

• Research Smarter Technologies: Understand their mission, the challenges in healthcare RCM, and their approach to AI automation. This will help you tailor your responses and demonstrate genuine interest.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with Smarter Technologies during the application and interview process.