Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Designer

Company: Sol

Location: San Mateo, California, United States

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: Product Design / UX/UI

Date Posted: 2026-06-13

Experience Level: 5-10 Years

Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• Spearhead the design vision and establish the comprehensive design system for an AI-native, agentic HR platform, ensuring a cohesive and intuitive user experience across all modules.

• Architect and design the platform's "builder layer," empowering customers to configure custom agents, dynamic workflows, and unique interfaces, thereby driving platform extensibility and customer ownership.

• Drive the design of employee-facing interactions, manager experience signals, and HR admin workflows, focusing on conversational and contextual interfaces that meet users precisely where they are.

• Collaborate intimately with product management and engineering teams to translate intricate domain complexities, particularly in enterprise HR and compliance, into elegantly simple and effective user experiences.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is for the first Product Designer at Sol, indicating a foundational impact on the company's design strategy and product direction. The emphasis on an "agentic HR system" and a "builder layer" suggests a highly innovative and complex product requiring a designer with experience in platform design and conversational interfaces. The hybrid work arrangement in San Mateo, California, implies a need for on-site presence for key collaborative sessions, despite the overall remote-friendly nature of the role.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Define and evangelize the overarching design vision and strategy for Sol's AI-native HR platform, encompassing employee, manager, HR admin, and executive leadership touchpoints.

• Design intuitive and powerful experiences for the platform's "builder layer," enabling customers to create and customize their own agents, complex workflows, and user interfaces.

• Develop and maintain a robust, scalable design system that supports both zero-friction employee interactions and sophisticated compliance and configuration scenarios.

• Translate deep domain complexity within HR, compliance, and workforce management into simple, effective, and contextually relevant user interactions across conversational and traditional UI paradigms.

• Conduct direct, hands-on research and user interviews with early customers to deeply understand current HR workflows, pain points, and future expectations, informing design decisions.

• Partner with product and engineering to ensure seamless translation of complex requirements into elegant, user-centered solutions, balancing domain knowledge with design innovation.

• Exercise critical judgment on the placement and execution of interactions, determining when an experience is best suited for Sol versus an external system, and defining agentic actions versus surfacing information.

• Champion a user-centered design approach throughout the product development lifecycle, fostering a culture of design thinking and user advocacy within the team.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a significant degree of autonomy and strategic influence for this foundational role. The emphasis on "agent-first" design and a "builder layer" suggests a need for a designer comfortable with ambiguity and the creation of tools for others to build with. Direct customer engagement is a core expectation, underscoring the importance of user research and empathy in translating complex HR needs into intuitive designs.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

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

Experience: 5-10 years of professional experience in Product Design, with a significant focus on enterprise software and complex SaaS platforms.

Required Skills:

• Proven experience designing for enterprise software, demonstrating an understanding of real-world complexity, organizational scale, and diverse user profiles.

• Demonstrated ability to design for a spectrum of users within a single product, from end-users seeking minimal friction to administrators requiring robust functionality and leaders needing actionable insights.

• Experience designing platform or builder experiences, including tools that enable customers or operators to create, configure, or extend product functionality.

• Strong understanding of design system principles, including experience building or contributing to a design system from its early stages, with clear opinions on standardization versus variation.

• Deep familiarity with conversational and agentic interface design principles, understanding their strengths, limitations, and effective application.

• Experience designing for high-stakes workflows such as compliance, approvals, and data integrity, where system trust and error prevention are paramount.

• Proficiency in user research methodologies, including direct customer engagement and qualitative data gathering to inform design decisions.

• Exceptional judgment and problem-solving skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity and make trade-offs in complex product environments.

• Low ego, high craft mentality, with a strong capacity for collaborative work and independent initiative without a fully defined brief. Preferred Skills:

• Direct experience in HR technology (HR Tech), workforce management, or closely related enterprise domains.

• Prior experience in early-stage startups, demonstrating adaptability, resourcefulness, and comfort with high ambiguity.

• Proficiency in prototyping tools and methodologies to quickly visualize and iterate on design concepts.

• Experience with AI-driven product design or understanding of AI capabilities within enterprise applications.

📝 Enhancement Note: The experience requirements emphasize a deep understanding of enterprise complexities and platform design. The "5-10 years" AI-derived experience level is a strong indicator of the seniority and expected impact of this role. The preference for HR Tech experience and early-stage startup background suggests the ideal candidate will be able to hit the ground running with minimal ramp-up time and possess a nuanced understanding of the HR domain.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase a minimum of 2-3 complex enterprise software projects, detailing the problem, your design process, and the impact of your solutions.

• Include at least one case study demonstrating the design of a "builder" or "configuration" tool, highlighting how users were empowered to customize or extend a platform.

• Present examples of robust design systems you have contributed to or built, illustrating your approach to components, patterns, and governance.

• Demonstrate experience with conversational interfaces or agentic systems, showcasing how you designed for context, dialogue flow, and user intent.

• Clearly articulate your user research process and how customer insights directly influenced design decisions and outcomes. Process Documentation:

• Provide evidence of your structured design process, from initial discovery and user research to wireframing, prototyping, user testing, and final implementation.

• Illustrate how you have established or scaled design systems, including documentation, component libraries, and collaboration frameworks with engineering.

• Showcase examples of how you've handled complex workflows, compliance requirements, or high-stakes data interactions within your designs.

• Detail your approach to collaborating with product managers and engineers, emphasizing cross-functional partnership and iterative development.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given this is the first Product Designer role, the portfolio is crucial for demonstrating the candidate's ability to establish foundational design principles and systems. The emphasis on "builder layer" design and complex enterprise workflows suggests a need for a portfolio that goes beyond typical consumer app design, showcasing strategic thinking and system-level design capabilities.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: For a Product Designer with 5-10 years of experience in San Mateo, California, the estimated salary range is $140,000 - $190,000 annually. This estimate is based on industry benchmarks for senior product design roles in the Bay Area, considering the company's early-stage status and the foundational nature of this hire.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.

• Stock options or equity, reflecting the early-stage startup environment and the opportunity for significant upside.

• Generous paid time off (PTO) and holidays.

• Professional development budget for conferences, courses, and learning resources.

• Potential for early employee benefits such as flexible work arrangements and team-building events.

• Opportunity to shape the design culture and product direction from the ground up.

Working Hours: Standard full-time hours, approximately 40 hours per week. While the role is hybrid, flexibility is expected to accommodate collaboration with teams across different time zones and customer needs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is an estimation for a senior Product Designer in the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically San Mateo, given the lack of explicit compensation data. The benefits listed are typical for early-stage tech startups, with a strong emphasis on equity to incentivize long-term commitment and reward early contributions. The hybrid nature suggests a balance between in-office collaboration and remote flexibility.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Software / Technology, specifically focused on Human Resources Technology (HR Tech) and AI-driven enterprise solutions. Sol is disrupting the traditional HRIS market with an AI-native approach designed for evolving work environments.

Company Size: Early-stage startup. As the first Product Designer is being hired, the core team is likely small, comprising founders and a few key engineers and product strategists. This offers a unique opportunity to influence company direction.

Founded: Founded by experienced leaders in the HR technology space with significant backing from prominent venture capital firms like Sutter Hill Ventures and NEA. The company is poised for significant growth as it prepares for customer go-lives in early 2027.

Team Structure:

• The Product Design function is nascent, with this role being the first dedicated designer.

• You will report to a founder or a senior product leader (e.g., Head of Product).

• Close collaboration will be essential with a small, dedicated engineering team and product management.

• Cross-functional interaction will extend to early customers, providing direct feedback loops. Methodology:

• Data-driven decision-making, with a strong emphasis on user research and customer feedback to validate design hypotheses.

• Agile development methodologies, prioritizing iterative design and rapid prototyping.

• A "builder" mindset, focused on creating extensible and configurable platforms that empower users.

• AI-first approach, integrating intelligent agents and contextual experiences as core product features.

Company Website: sol.com (derived from domain_derived)

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture is characterized by its early-stage, high-growth potential, backed by experienced founders and investors. The "AI-native" and "agentic" focus suggests a forward-thinking and innovative environment. The small team size implies a flat hierarchy and significant individual impact, requiring a proactive and collaborative approach.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role represents a Senior Product Designer position, with the potential to grow into a Lead or Head of Design as the company scales. As the inaugural designer, you will set the standard for design quality and process.

Reporting Structure: You will likely report directly to a founder or a senior product leader, providing a direct line of communication and influence at the executive level. This close proximity fosters rapid learning and high visibility.

Operations Impact: Your design work will directly shape the core user experience of Sol's revolutionary HR platform. This includes defining how employees interact with their HR, how managers receive crucial workforce signals, and how HR leaders manage complex compliance and operations. The success of the "builder layer" will significantly impact customer adoption and platform stickiness.

Growth Opportunities:

• Strategic Leadership: Opportunity to define and build the entire design function from the ground up, including hiring future design team members.

• Domain Expertise: Deepen expertise in HR Tech, AI-driven platforms, and enterprise SaaS design, becoming a leader in this specialized field.

• Product Ownership: Influence product strategy and roadmap through design insights and user advocacy, potentially leading to broader product responsibilities.

• Technical Acumen: Develop a strong understanding of AI, agentic systems, and the technical architecture underpinning complex enterprise software.

• Entrepreneurial Experience: Gain invaluable experience in a fast-paced startup environment, contributing to company-building initiatives beyond pure design.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a unique "build-from-scratch" opportunity within a well-funded, experienced startup. The growth trajectory is significant, moving from an individual contributor to a potential design leader, with ample opportunities for skill expansion into AI, enterprise SaaS, and product strategy.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Hybrid work model. While the role is based in San Mateo, California, the company embraces a hybrid approach, suggesting a blend of in-office collaboration and remote work flexibility.

Office Location(s): San Mateo, California. This location is in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, a hub for technology and innovation, offering access to a vibrant ecosystem.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Hub: The San Mateo office likely serves as a central point for team meetings, design sprints, and crucial collaborative sessions that benefit from in-person interaction.

• Tools and Technology: Expect access to modern design and collaboration tools necessary for building an AI-native platform, likely including advanced prototyping software and cloud-based design systems.

• Team Interaction: Opportunities for close, dynamic interaction with founders, product, and engineering teams, fostering a tight-knit and highly communicative work environment.

Work Schedule: While the core work week is approximately 40 hours, the hybrid nature and startup environment may require flexibility to accommodate project deadlines, customer needs, and cross-time zone collaborations.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid model in San Mateo suggests a deliberate approach to balancing in-person collaboration, essential for foundational design work and team building, with the flexibility that remote work offers. This environment is ideal for individuals who thrive in dynamic settings and value both focused individual work and strong team synergy.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screen: A brief call with a recruiter or hiring manager to assess basic qualifications and cultural fit.

• Portfolio Presentation & Deep Dive: A significant portion of the interview will involve presenting your portfolio, focusing on 2-3 key projects. Expect in-depth questions about your design process, decision-making rationale, and how you handle complexity. Be prepared to discuss your experience with enterprise software, design systems, and builder platforms.

• Design Challenge/Workshop: You may be given a take-home assignment or a live design exercise focused on a complex problem relevant to Sol's product. This will assess your problem-solving skills, strategic thinking, and ability to translate requirements into design solutions under time constraints.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with engineering and product leads to evaluate collaboration style, technical understanding, and ability to work effectively within a cross-functional team.

• Founder/Executive Interview: A final conversation to assess strategic alignment, cultural fit, and vision for the design function at Sol.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: Quantify the impact of your designs whenever possible (e.g., increased conversion, reduced support tickets, improved user efficiency).

• Showcase Process: Clearly articulate your thought process, from problem definition and user research to iteration and final solution. Explain why you made certain design choices.

• Highlight Enterprise Complexity: Emphasize projects that demonstrate your ability to handle intricate workflows, compliance, and diverse user needs in an enterprise context.

• Demonstrate Design System Maturity: If you've built or significantly contributed to a design system, showcase its components, patterns, and how it maintained coherence across a complex product.

• Address Builder/Platform Design: If you have experience designing tools that enable others to build or configure, make sure this is a prominent part of your presentation.

• Tailor to Sol: Research Sol's mission and the "agentic HR" concept. Frame your experience in a way that directly addresses their unique challenges and opportunities.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Familiarize yourself with current trends in HR Tech, AI in enterprise software, and the concept of agentic systems.

• Think Systemically: Be prepared to think about how your design fits into a larger platform and how it might be configured or extended by customers.

• Prioritize and Justify: In a timed challenge, demonstrate your ability to prioritize core user needs and justify your design decisions based on strategic goals and user impact.

• Practice Communication: Be ready to clearly articulate your design rationale and defend your choices, especially in the context of enterprise complexity and AI capabilities.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is designed to rigorously assess not only design craft but also strategic thinking, problem-solving abilities within complex enterprise contexts, and the capacity to build foundational design infrastructure. The portfolio review will be a critical component, requiring candidates to demonstrate tangible impact and a deep understanding of system-level design.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (highly probable, industry standard), Sketch, Adobe XD. Expect proficiency in creating interactive prototypes to demonstrate user flows and agentic interactions.

• Design Systems: Familiarity with building, maintaining, and scaling design systems. Experience with tools that support component libraries and documentation (e.g., Storybook integration, Zeroheight).

• User Research & Testing: Tools like UserTesting.com, Maze, Hotjar, or internal tools for conducting user interviews, usability testing, and gathering feedback on conversational and builder experiences.

• Collaboration & Project Management: Jira, Asana, Trello, Slack for seamless integration with product and engineering teams, tracking design tasks, and facilitating communication.

Analytics & Reporting:

• While not a direct responsibility, understanding how to leverage product analytics tools (e.g., Amplitude, Mixpanel, Google Analytics) to inform design decisions and measure the impact of design changes is crucial.

• Familiarity with data visualization tools for presenting user insights and design impact to stakeholders. CRM & Automation:

• Understanding of CRM principles and how HR platforms integrate with or manage employee data is beneficial.

• Awareness of workflow automation concepts, essential for designing both user-facing workflows and the underlying builder capabilities.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in Figma is almost a given for modern design roles. The emphasis on design systems and user research tools is paramount for this role, given its foundational nature. An understanding of how designs translate into measurable outcomes via analytics tools will be a significant advantage.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Customer-Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and solving the real-world problems of HR leaders, managers, and employees by designing empathetic and effective solutions.

• Innovation & AI-Forward: Embracing the potential of AI to transform HR operations, and a dedication to designing intelligent, agentic experiences that redefine the user interaction model.

• Simplicity from Complexity: The drive to distill intricate enterprise requirements and domain knowledge into interfaces that feel intuitive, effortless, and inevitable for users.

• Craftsmanship & High Standards: A commitment to exceptional design quality, attention to detail, and the creation of polished, reliable, and scalable products.

• Collaboration & Transparency: Fostering an open environment where ideas are shared freely, feedback is constructive, and all team members are empowered to contribute to product success.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Seamless collaboration with product management and engineering is non-negotiable, treating design as an integral part of the product development lifecycle, not an afterthought.

• Iterative Design & Feedback Loops: A culture of continuous feedback, where designs are shared early and often, and user insights are actively sought and incorporated into iterations.

• Knowledge Sharing: Proactive sharing of design processes, research findings, and system updates to ensure alignment and collective understanding across the team.

• Ambiguity Navigation: A collective comfort with operating in an early-stage environment, where clear paths may not always exist, encouraging collective problem-solving and adaptability.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's values emphasize a blend of user advocacy, technological innovation (specifically AI), and a commitment to design excellence. The collaborative style is expected to be highly integrated, reflecting the fast-paced nature of a startup building a complex enterprise product.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Defining a New Category: Designing for an "agentic HR system" is novel; establishing best practices for conversational and AI-driven HR interactions will require significant innovation and user education.

• Balancing Simplicity and Complexity: Creating experiences that are zero-friction for employees while accommodating deep configuration and compliance needs for HR admins is a core design tension.

• Building from Scratch: Establishing the entire design system, processes, and culture from the ground up with limited resources demands significant initiative and strategic foresight.

• Early-Stage Ambiguity: Navigating a rapidly evolving product roadmap and customer needs in a startup environment, requiring adaptability and resilience.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Ensuring consistent understanding and collaboration across a small, growing team, especially when translating complex technical and domain concepts into design.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• AI Design Specialization: Becoming an expert in designing for AI-powered applications and agentic interfaces, a highly sought-after skill.

• Enterprise SaaS Mastery: Deepening expertise in the nuances of enterprise software design, including complex workflows, security, and scalability.

• Product Strategy Influence: Gaining significant influence over product direction and strategy, potentially leading to broader leadership roles.

• Foundational Design Leadership: Direct experience in building and scaling a design function within a high-growth startup.

• HR Tech Domain Expertise: Developing a deep understanding of the HR technology landscape and its future evolution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The primary challenges stem from the innovative nature of the product and the early-stage company context. These challenges are directly linked to significant growth and learning opportunities, making this role attractive to ambitious designers looking for high impact and rapid professional development.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach designing a system where the primary interaction model is conversational, especially for complex HR tasks like compliance reporting or benefits enrollment?" (Focus on your process for handling complexity in conversational UI, understanding user intent, and designing agentic actions.)

• "Describe your experience designing 'builder' or 'configuration' tools for enterprise software. What are the key considerations for empowering users to customize a platform effectively and safely?" (Emphasize your understanding of user control, guardrails, extensibility, and the balance between power and simplicity.)

• "Imagine you're tasked with designing Sol's core design system from scratch. What would be your initial priorities, and how would you balance standardization with the need to support diverse experiences (employee chat, admin workflows, builder tools)?" (Showcase your strategic thinking on design system architecture, scalability, and governance.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "Based on your understanding of Sol's mission and the concept of an 'agentic HR system,' what do you see as the biggest design opportunities and challenges?" (Demonstrate your research and strategic thinking about the company's vision.)

• "How do you approach collaborating with product managers and engineers in a fast-paced startup environment, especially when dealing with complex technical and domain challenges?" (Highlight your teamwork, communication skills, and ability to navigate ambiguity.)

• "What are your expectations for your first 90 days in this role, given that you'd be the first Product Designer?" (Show your proactive approach, focus on impact, and understanding of foundational role responsibilities.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure Your Narrative: For each project, clearly define the problem, your role, your process, the key decisions you made, and the measurable outcomes.

• Highlight AI & Agentic Design: If you have relevant experience, explicitly call out how your designs leveraged AI or were agentic in nature. If not, frame your existing experience in terms of adaptable, context-aware, or automated interactions.

• Showcase Design System Thinking: Whether you built one or used one extensively, be ready to discuss its principles, components, and how it ensured consistency.

• Demonstrate Enterprise Acumen: Use projects that clearly illustrate your ability to handle complex requirements, diverse user types, and high-stakes workflows.

• Be Ready for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about your rationale, trade-offs, and how you handled constraints or challenges.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview preparation emphasizes strategic thinking, domain understanding, and the ability to articulate complex design decisions clearly. Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate not just design craft but also a strategic vision for building a design function and a product in a novel space.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided Ashby link.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your most relevant enterprise software or platform design projects that best showcase your experience with complex systems, design systems, and builder/configuration tools. Tailor your case studies to highlight how you handled ambiguity and user-centricity in intricate environments.

• Optimize Your Resume: Ensure your resume clearly articulates your years of experience, specific skills in enterprise software design, design systems, and any experience with AI or conversational interfaces. Quantify achievements where possible.

• Prepare Your Presentation: Practice presenting your portfolio, focusing on clear storytelling, articulating your design process, and demonstrating the impact of your work. Be ready to discuss your approach to foundational design challenges.

• Research Sol: Thoroughly understand Sol's mission, their AI-native, agentic HR platform concept, and their target market. Think about how your design philosophy aligns with their vision.

⚠️ 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.