Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Designer

Company: Pi Security

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / UX/UI

Date Posted: September 10, 2026

Experience Level: Mid-Level (3-5+ years)

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• This role is central to shaping the user experience of Pi Security's agentic security platform, focusing on translating complex security workflows into intuitive interfaces.

• The Product Designer will be responsible for the end-to-end design of core product surfaces, including findings, investigations, and remediation workflows.

• A key aspect involves close collaboration with product and engineering teams to iterate on designs and ensure seamless implementation within a React and Next.js frontend stack.

• The position demands a strong systems-thinking approach, with an emphasis on designing for information-dense, technical, or enterprise products where clarity and trust are paramount.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is specifically for an on-site Product Designer in San Francisco, emphasizing hands-on work with the founding team in an early-stage, fast-moving startup environment. The "agentic security platform" implies a focus on AI-driven or automated security processes, requiring a designer adept at simplifying complex technical interactions.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end product design for Pi's core surfaces, including findings triage, root-cause investigation, remediation review, prevention guardrails, dashboards, and the Sloane assistant experience.

• Translate dense, technical security and engineering context into user interfaces that are fast to scan, easy to trust, and simple to act on for security teams and developers.

• Collaborate directly with product managers and engineers to translate ambiguous product direction into concrete user flows, interactive prototypes, and polished UI designs.

• Design within and contribute to the evolution of the product's visual language and component patterns, working closely with frontend engineers implementing in React and Next.js.

• Conduct user discovery through customer interviews, workflow shadowing, and usability testing to ground design decisions in real-world usage by security and engineering teams.

• Balance the need for speed in a startup environment with the critical requirement for clarity, trust, and accuracy in a security-dependent product.

• Proactively identify opportunities for design improvements that enhance user efficiency and product reliability.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of strategic design ownership and detailed execution, typical for an early-stage product designer. The emphasis on "security workflows" and "agentic platform" suggests a need for designers experienced in complex B2B or enterprise environments, where data density and user trust are critical.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio demonstrating equivalent practical experience and a deep understanding of design principles is expected. Experience:

• 3-5+ years of dedicated product design experience, with a proven track record of owning complex, workflow-heavy products from conception through launch.

• Experience designing for information-dense, technical, or enterprise products where clarity, trust, and usability are as critical as visual polish. Required Skills:

• Strong systems thinking capabilities, evident in the ability to design cohesive and scalable product experiences.

• Fluency in modern interaction patterns for dashboards, tables, filters, detail views, and multi-step workflows.

• Proficiency in prototyping tools such as Sketch (preferred), Figma, or equivalent, with the judgment to select the appropriate fidelity for different design stages.

• Comfort and experience working directly with engineers on implementation details, understanding technical constraints and trade-offs.

• Experience conducting lightweight, rapid user research, including customer interviews and usability testing, and translating findings into actionable design decisions.

• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-moving, ambiguous startup environment, demonstrating judgment to balance speed with necessary rigor.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to articulate design decisions and rationale clearly. Preferred Skills:

• Background designing for developer tools, security products, infrastructure, or other technical B2B products.

• Experience contributing to or evolving a design system.

• Familiarity with the frontend technology stack (React, Next.js) or sufficient technical fluency to collaborate effectively with engineers.

• Prior experience as an early design hire at a startup.

• Experience designing AI-assisted or agentic product experiences.

📝 Enhancement Note: The experience requirement emphasizes "complex, workflow-heavy products" over marketing sites, signaling a need for designers who can tackle intricate user journeys and data-heavy interfaces. The preference for Sketch and familiarity with React/Next.js are specific technical pointers.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase end-to-end product design projects, detailing your role, process, and the impact of your contributions.

• Projects should demonstrate strong systems thinking, including how you approached consistency, scalability, and the evolution of a design language or component library.

• Include examples of designing for complex workflows, information-dense interfaces, or technical/enterprise products where clarity and trust were key design considerations.

• Highlight your ability to translate user needs and technical requirements into intuitive and effective user interfaces.

• Demonstrate experience with user research methodologies and how insights informed your design decisions. Process Documentation:

• Clearly articulate your design process for each project, from problem definition and user research to ideation, prototyping, user testing, and final implementation.

• Detail how you collaborated with product managers and engineers throughout the design lifecycle.

• Provide examples of how you balanced competing priorities, technical constraints, and user needs.

• Showcase your approach to iterative design and how you incorporated feedback to refine solutions.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirements are heavily geared towards demonstrating experience with complex B2B/enterprise products and workflow design. Candidates should be prepared to show how they translated intricate technical requirements into user-friendly interfaces and highlight their systems thinking capabilities.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Based on industry benchmarks for Product Designers with 3-5+ years of experience in San Francisco, California, the estimated salary range is between $130,000 and $170,000 annually. This range is subject to adjustments based on the candidate's specific experience, skills, and interview performance. Benefits:

• Competitive salary and meaningful equity.

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.

• Opportunities for professional development and continuous learning.

• A San Francisco office environment that encourages in-person collaboration.

• Work directly alongside the founding team, backed by top investors and security industry leaders. Working Hours:

• Standard full-time hours, typically 40 hours per week. While the role is on-site, the company culture may allow for some flexibility in daily scheduling, though this should be confirmed during the interview process.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary estimate is based on San Francisco's high cost of living and the competitive market for experienced Product Designers in the tech sector, particularly for early-stage startups offering equity. The benefits listed are standard for tech companies, with emphasis on equity for early hires.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology, specifically Cybersecurity and AI/Agentic Platforms. Pi Security operates in a rapidly evolving sector that requires innovation and a deep understanding of complex technical challenges.

Company Size: Early-stage startup. This implies a dynamic, fast-paced environment where individuals have significant impact and autonomy. The team is likely small and highly collaborative, with flat hierarchies.

Founded: Pi Security was founded by industry veterans, suggesting a strong foundation of expertise and a clear vision for the product. The company is well-funded, indicating stability and growth potential.

Team Structure:

• The Product Design role will likely be part of a small, integrated product team, working closely with Product Management and Engineering.

• As an early design hire, the individual will have significant influence on the product's direction and the development of the design function.

• Cross-functional collaboration is expected to be high, with direct interaction with founders and key engineering leads. Methodology:

• Data-driven decision-making, informed by user research and product analytics.

• Agile development methodologies, prioritizing rapid iteration and continuous improvement.

• Emphasis on building trust and reliability, especially critical for a security product.

• Collaborative problem-solving, encouraging input from all team members.

Company Website: https://pi.security

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's focus on "agentic security" and being a "well-funded, fast-growing security startup" indicates a culture that values innovation, technical depth, and a proactive approach to security challenges. The emphasis on "building together, in person" suggests a strong belief in collaborative, co-located work environments.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a Mid-Level Product Designer, requiring 3-5+ years of experience. It offers the opportunity for significant ownership and impact, typical of an early hire in a startup.

Reporting Structure: The Product Designer will likely report to a Head of Product, VP of Product, or potentially directly to a CEO/CTO in a very early-stage setup. They will work closely with Product Managers and Engineering Leads.

Operations Impact: The Product Designer will have a direct impact on the usability, adoption, and trustworthiness of Pi Security's core platform. Their work will directly influence how effectively security teams and developers can manage and resolve security issues, thereby contributing to the company's overall success and market position.

Growth Opportunities:

• Deepening Expertise: Opportunity to become a subject matter expert in designing for agentic security platforms, a niche and growing field.

• Leadership Potential: As the company grows, there will be opportunities to build and lead a design team, define design processes, and establish a design system.

• Broad Product Influence: With significant ownership, the designer can shape product strategy and contribute to business-level decisions based on user insights.

• Skill Expansion: Exposure to cutting-edge AI technologies and complex B2B security challenges offers significant learning opportunities.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a substantial growth trajectory, particularly for someone looking to gain deep experience in a specialized, high-growth tech sector like agentic security. The "early design hire" aspect means significant potential for leadership and shaping the future of design within the company.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The role is strictly on-site at their San Francisco office. This suggests a commitment to in-person collaboration and a belief in the benefits of co-located team synergy.

Office Location(s): San Francisco, California. This location places the company within a major tech hub, offering access to talent and a vibrant startup ecosystem.

Workspace Context:

• A collaborative workspace designed to foster teamwork and spontaneous interaction among product, engineering, and design teams.

• Access to the necessary tools and technology for design and prototyping, including software like Sketch or Figma.

• Opportunities for direct engagement with founders and engineers, facilitating rapid feedback loops and shared understanding.

• A culture that values open communication and shared problem-solving. Work Schedule:

• Standard full-time schedule, with an emphasis on in-person presence. While specific daily hours might offer some flexibility, the expectation is consistent availability and contribution during core business hours to facilitate team collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit requirement for "100% onsite" work in San Francisco is a critical factor. This environment is designed for maximum collaboration and integration with the founding team, which is characteristic of early-stage startups focused on rapid development and strong team cohesion.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your resume and portfolio to assess experience and alignment with the role's requirements, particularly for complex workflow design and technical products.

• Portfolio Presentation & Discussion: A session where you'll walk through selected projects from your portfolio, explaining your process, design decisions, and the impact of your work. Expect to discuss your systems thinking and how you handled ambiguity.

• Design Exercise/Case Study: You may be given a design challenge or asked to elaborate on a specific problem relevant to Pi Security's domain, testing your problem-solving skills, design thinking, and ability to articulate solutions.

• Team Interviews: Meetings with Product Management and Engineering leads to assess collaboration style, technical understanding, and cultural fit.

• Founder/Leadership Interview: A final discussion with company leadership to gauge overall fit, vision alignment, and enthusiasm for the startup environment.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: Quantify the results of your work whenever possible (e.g., improved user efficiency, reduced errors, increased adoption).

• Showcase Process: Clearly articulate your design process for each project, emphasizing how you tackled complexity and ambiguity.

• Highlight Systems Thinking: Demonstrate how you designed for consistency, scalability, and maintainability within a product ecosystem.

• Tailor to B2B/Technical: Select projects that best exemplify your experience with complex workflows, data-dense interfaces, or technical/enterprise products.

• Explain Trade-offs: Be prepared to discuss the decisions you made, the constraints you faced, and the trade-offs you considered.

Challenge Preparation:

• Research Pi Security's product, target audience (security teams, developers), and the broader agentic security landscape.

• Practice articulating complex design problems and solutions concisely.

• Prepare to discuss how you would approach designing for security-critical workflows where trust and accuracy are paramount.

• Think about how you would balance rapid iteration with the need for robust, reliable design in a startup context.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process will likely heavily scrutinize the candidate's portfolio for evidence of experience with complex, workflow-driven B2B products and their ability to collaborate closely with engineering. The "agentic security" domain means a focus on translating technical concepts into usable interfaces will be key.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Prototyping & Design: Sketch (preferred), Figma, or equivalent. Candidates should be proficient in creating high-fidelity prototypes and detailed UI designs.

• Collaboration & Documentation: Tools like Jira, Confluence, or similar platforms for managing tasks, documenting processes, and collaborating with engineering and product teams.

• User Research: Tools for conducting usability testing and gathering user feedback (e.g., UserTesting.com, Maze, or in-person methods).

Analytics & Reporting:

• While not directly a design tool, understanding how to interpret data from analytics platforms (e.g., Amplitude, Mixpanel) to inform design decisions is valuable. CRM & Automation:

• Not directly applicable to the Product Designer role, but awareness of how design impacts user journeys within B2B SaaS products is beneficial. Frontend Stack (for collaboration):

• React: Familiarity with React is highly beneficial for understanding component-based design and collaborating with frontend engineers.

• Next.js: Understanding this framework can further enhance collaboration with the engineering team.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of Sketch as preferred, alongside Figma, and the emphasis on React/Next.js for collaboration are key technical requirements. Designers should be ready to discuss how their design work integrates with this specific frontend stack.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• User-Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and serving the needs of security teams and developers, even within complex technical domains.

• Rigor & Trust: A dedication to accuracy, reliability, and building user trust, essential for a security product where errors can have significant consequences.

• Collaboration: A belief in working closely together across product, engineering, and design to achieve shared goals.

• Speed & Iteration: Embracing a startup mentality to move quickly, learn from feedback, and iterate on solutions.

• Ownership: Taking responsibility for design outcomes and driving projects to completion.

Collaboration Style:

• Highly collaborative and integrated, with product designers working shoulder-to-shoulder with product managers and engineers.

• Emphasis on open communication, constructive feedback, and shared problem-solving.

• A culture that values bringing ideas from all team members, fostering a sense of collective ownership.

• Regular design reviews and cross-functional syncs to ensure alignment and address challenges proactively.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company values align with typical high-performing startup cultures, emphasizing user focus, rapid iteration, and strong team collaboration. For a security product, "rigor and trust" are amplified values, and designers are expected to uphold these in their work.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Simplifying Complexity: The primary challenge is translating highly technical and intricate security workflows into interfaces that are intuitive and easy for users to navigate and act upon.

• Balancing Speed and Quality: Operating in a fast-paced startup requires rapid iteration, but the security-critical nature of the product demands a high degree of accuracy and trustworthiness in design.

• Early-Stage Design System Development: As an early hire, you may be instrumental in defining and building a design system from the ground up, which requires foresight and strategic planning.

• Ambiguity: Navigating ambiguous product requirements and evolving company direction is common in startups.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Specialized Domain Expertise: Gain deep knowledge in agentic security, AI in cybersecurity, and the specific needs of security operations and developer teams.

• Startup Growth Experience: Learn how to build and scale product functions within a high-growth startup environment.

• Cross-Functional Skill Development: Enhance collaboration and communication skills by working closely with engineering and product leadership.

• Potential for Leadership: Opportunity to grow into a design leadership role as the company expands.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are typical for an early-stage product designer in a technically complex field. The growth opportunities highlight the potential for significant career advancement and specialized expertise development.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach designing a user interface for triaging security findings, considering the need for both speed and accuracy?"

• "Describe a time you had to simplify a complex technical workflow for end-users. What was your process and the outcome?"

• "How do you balance the need for rapid iteration in a startup with the critical requirement for trust and reliability in a security product?"

• "Walk us through your process for developing a design system or component library. What are the key considerations for enterprise products?" Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Pi Security and our mission in agentic security?"

• "How do you approach collaboration with engineers and product managers, especially when there are differing opinions?"

• "Describe your ideal work environment in a startup. How do you thrive in ambiguity?"

• "How do you ensure your design decisions are grounded in user needs, especially when dealing with technical users?" Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Tell a Story: For each project, frame it as a narrative: the problem, your approach, the solution, and the impact.

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Use visuals, mockups, and prototypes effectively to demonstrate your design solutions.

• Focus on Process & Rationale: Explain why you made certain design decisions, referencing user research, technical constraints, or business goals.

• Highlight Collaboration: Detail how you worked with cross-functional teams.

• Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Expect questions about specific UI elements, interaction patterns, and your systems thinking.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating experience with complex B2B products, strong systems thinking, and a collaborative approach. Candidates should be ready to articulate their design process and decision-making rationale, especially concerning technical and security-related challenges.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 projects that best showcase your experience with complex workflows, technical products, and systems thinking. Ensure each project clearly outlines the problem, your process, your role, and the impact.

• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight keywords related to product design, UI/UX, prototyping, systems thinking, enterprise products, and any experience with security or developer tools. Quantify achievements where possible.

• Prepare Your Narrative: Practice explaining your portfolio projects clearly and concisely, focusing on your design process, decision-making, and collaboration. Be ready to discuss challenges and how you overcame them.

• Research Pi Security: Understand their product, mission, target audience, and the competitive landscape in agentic security. This will help you tailor your responses and demonstrate genuine interest.

⚠️ 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.