Product Designer (Part-Time Contract)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Designer (Part-Time Contract)

Company: Parsley Health

Location: Remote

Job Type: Part-Time Contract

Category: Product Design / GTM Operations

Date Posted: April 23, 2026

Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level (implied by autonomy and compensation range)

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• This role focuses on driving growth through marketing site and acquisition flow design, enhancing clinician tools for functional medicine delivery, and optimizing member experiences within the app and portal.

• You will collaborate closely with the founding team to translate abstract goals into concrete design solutions, leveraging AI as a collaborative tool.

• The position requires a strong product design toolkit, encompassing Information Architecture, Interaction Design, and Visual Craft, with an emphasis on creating self-sufficient designs.

• An entrepreneurial mindset is crucial, enabling you to navigate ambiguity, ask insightful questions, and drive projects from hypothesis to polished delivery with minimal oversight.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Product Designer," the responsibilities heavily lean into GTM (Growth, acquisition flows) and operational efficiency within clinician tools, making this a hybrid role with significant GTM and operational impact. The part-time contract nature and high hourly rate suggest a need for experienced professionals who can deliver high-value, autonomous work. The mention of AI collaboration and component library evolution points to a role that is not just about creating new designs but also about enabling scalable design systems and empowering engineering teams.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Partner with the founding team to conceptualize and design user-centric solutions for the marketing website and customer acquisition funnels, with a direct impact on membership growth.

• Develop and refine clinician tools, focusing on improving the daily workflow and efficiency of doctors and health coaches in delivering functional medicine care.

• Design and iterate on member-facing applications and portals, ensuring seamless integration of lab results, treatment protocols, and long-term behavior change support.

• Define and evolve the design system, including component libraries, to ensure brand consistency and enable engineers to effectively prototype and ship with AI assistance.

• Frame complex problems, develop design strategies, and guide engineers through the design and prototyping process, fostering a culture of independent design execution.

• Review major design implementations, ensuring adherence to established patterns and contributing to the continuous improvement of the component library.

• Act as a design mentor to engineers, particularly those leveraging AI for prototyping, ensuring their output aligns with Parsley Health's design standards and brand identity.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strategic partnership with the founding team, indicating a need for a designer who can operate with a high degree of autonomy and influence. The emphasis on "shaping all of them" implies a broad scope of impact across key business areas. The mention of AI collaboration and empowering engineers suggests a focus on scalable design practices and knowledge transfer, crucial for a part-time contract role.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Not specified, but a Bachelor's degree in Design, HCI, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience, is generally expected for this level of role.

Experience: 5-10 years of experience in product design, with a strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end product development. Experience in a fast-paced, startup environment is highly beneficial.

Required Skills:

• Product Design Toolkit: Proficiency across Information Architecture (IA), Interaction Design, and Visual Design. Ability to take concepts from rough hypothesis through wireframing, UI design, prototyping, and final handoff.

• AI Collaboration: Experience working with AI as a design collaborator and mentoring engineers in its use for prototyping.

• Entrepreneurial Mindset: Demonstrated ability to operate autonomously, embrace ambiguity, ask critical questions, and drive projects to completion with minimal supervision.

• Systems Thinking: Experience in developing and maintaining design systems and component libraries, ensuring consistency and scalability.

• User Experience (UX) Design: Deep understanding of user-centered design principles and methodologies.

• User Interface (UI) Design: Strong visual design skills and the ability to create polished, intuitive interfaces.

• Prototyping: Proficiency in creating interactive prototypes to test and communicate design concepts.

• Mentorship: Ability to guide and mentor engineering teams on design best practices and AI integration.

Preferred Skills:

• Healthcare or Health Tech Experience: Prior experience in the healthcare industry or with health technology products.

• Growth Design: Proven track record of designing for user acquisition, conversion optimization, and marketing initiatives.

• Functional Medicine Knowledge: Familiarity with the principles and practices of functional medicine.

• Agile/Scrum Methodologies: Experience working within agile development environments.

📝 Enhancement Note: The experience level is inferred from the compensation range ($75-$200/hour) and the expectation of autonomy and mentorship. The "strong product design toolkit" is broken down into specific competencies like IA, Interaction, and Visual Craft, aligning with industry standards for experienced product designers. The emphasis on AI collaboration and mentorship is a key differentiator for this role.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• End-to-End Case Studies: Showcase at least 2-3 comprehensive case studies detailing your process from problem framing to final shipped product. For each, clearly articulate the problem, your approach, your specific contributions, design decisions, and the impact of your work.

• Problem Framing: Demonstrate how you approach abstract goals and translate them into actionable design challenges. Include examples of initial hypotheses and how you validated them.

• System Design: Present examples of how you have contributed to or managed design systems, including component libraries, style guides, and pattern documentation. Highlight how you ensure consistency and scalability across products.

• AI Integration Examples: If possible, include examples or descriptions of how you've worked with AI in the design process or enabled engineering teams to leverage AI effectively.

• Impact Metrics: Quantify the impact of your designs whenever possible, using metrics related to growth, user engagement, efficiency gains, or other relevant KPIs.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design: Illustrate your process for user research, ideation, wireframing, prototyping, and user testing.

• System Evolution: Describe how you manage and evolve design systems and component libraries to keep pace with product development and emerging technologies.

• Collaboration & Handoff: Detail your methods for collaborating with cross-functional teams (especially engineers and product managers) and your process for design handoff to ensure smooth implementation.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the part-time contract nature and the emphasis on enabling engineers with AI, a portfolio that demonstrates not just design output but also process, system thinking, and the ability to codify design principles will be highly valued. The ability to show how designs scale and how knowledge is transferred is critical.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $75 - $200 per hour, depending on expertise and industry experience.

Benefits: As a part-time contract role, formal benefits like health insurance, paid time off, and retirement plans are typically not included. However, potential benefits could include:

• Flexibility in working hours and schedule.

• Opportunity to work on impactful projects in the growing health tech sector.

• Direct collaboration with a founding team.

• Potential for extended engagement based on performance.

Working Hours: Minimum of 5 hours per week, with flexibility to shape the engagement beyond this minimum. The role is part-time, and the exact hours will be negotiated based on project needs and candidate availability.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hourly rate provided is significant and reflects a senior-level, specialized skill set. For a contract role, benefits are usually limited, so the emphasis is on the flexibility and impact of the work itself. The "minimum of 5 hours per week" suggests a project-based or task-oriented engagement that can scale.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Healthcare, Health Technology, Functional Medicine. Parsley Health is positioned at the intersection of technology and personalized healthcare, aiming to disrupt traditional primary care models.

Company Size: Parsley Health is a growing startup. While specific numbers aren't provided, the mention of a "founding team" and "hiring a fractional product designer" suggests a lean, agile organization where individual contributions have a significant impact.

Founded: Parsley Health was founded with a mission to provide root-cause, functional medicine. This founding principle informs their approach to care and likely their company culture, emphasizing innovation, member-centricity, and a holistic view of health.

Team Structure: The Product Designer will work directly with the founding team, implying close collaboration with leadership, product management, and engineering. The design team structure is likely lean, with this role serving as a key design partner rather than being embedded within a large design department. Cross-functional collaboration will be essential, particularly with engineers who are actively prototyping with AI.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Growth: The focus on "Growth" and "acquisition flows" suggests a data-informed approach to marketing and user acquisition.

• Functional Medicine Approach: The core of the company's offering, emphasizing root-cause analysis and holistic health.

• AI-Augmented Development: Engineers are actively using AI for prototyping, indicating a forward-thinking and technology-driven development process.

• Agile & Iterative Design: The need to translate abstract goals into concrete solutions and the expectation to "ship" suggests an iterative design and development cycle.

Company Website: parsleyhealth.com

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture is likely fast-paced, innovative, and mission-driven, given its focus on disrupting healthcare. The emphasis on a "fractional" designer and direct work with the founding team suggests a high degree of autonomy and influence for the hired individual.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is for a Mid-to-Senior Level Product Designer, acting as a key design partner with significant autonomy. It’s not a junior role; it requires independent problem-solving and the ability to mentor others. The "fractional" nature means it's a contract position, not a traditional career ladder within the company, but it offers opportunities for deep engagement on critical projects.

Reporting Structure: The designer will report directly to or work very closely with the founding team, likely including the CEO or Head of Product, depending on the immediate team structure. This close proximity to leadership provides high visibility and direct impact.

Operations Impact: The role has a direct impact on three critical areas:

1. Revenue Growth: Through marketing site and acquisition flow design.

2. Operational Efficiency: By improving the tools used by clinicians.

3. Customer Success: By enhancing the member experience and supporting long-term behavior change.

Growth Opportunities:

• Skill Deepening: Opportunity to refine skills in designing for complex, regulated industries like healthcare, and to gain expertise in AI-augmented design workflows.

• Strategic Influence: Direct collaboration with founders offers a chance to shape product strategy and contribute to high-level decision-making.

• Portfolio Expansion: The diverse responsibilities (growth, clinician tools, member experience) provide a broad range of projects to showcase in a professional portfolio.

• Potential for Extended Engagement: Successful contractors may be offered continued work or expanded responsibilities based on performance and company needs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The growth opportunities are less about traditional internal advancement and more about developing specialized skills, gaining strategic experience, and building a robust portfolio through impactful contract work. The ability to mentor engineers on design and AI is a significant growth area.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully Remote. While being based in NYC and open to visiting the office is a "plus," the core of the role is remote, offering flexibility.

Office Location(s): Remote, with a preference for NYC-based candidates who can occasionally visit the office.

Workspace Context:

• Remote Collaboration: The expectation is that work will be conducted remotely, requiring strong digital communication and collaboration skills.

• AI-Powered Tools: Engineers are using AI daily, implying that the design tools and processes should integrate well with such technologies.

• Lean & Agile: The startup environment suggests a dynamic workplace where adaptability and quick iteration are valued.

• Direct Interaction: Close collaboration with the founding team means frequent communication and engagement with leadership.

Work Schedule: Minimum of 5 hours per week. The exact schedule is flexible and will be shaped around the candidate's availability and project requirements, allowing for significant autonomy in managing workload.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote-first nature with an optional NYC office visit offers flexibility. The "AI-powered development" context suggests the tools and workflows will be modern and potentially cutting-edge.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process: While not explicitly detailed, a typical process for this type of role would involve:

• Initial Screening: A brief call with a Talent Acquisition member to assess basic qualifications, alignment with the role, and remote work suitability.

• Portfolio Review: A deep dive into the candidate's portfolio with hiring managers (likely founders or product leads). This will focus on design process, problem-solving, impact, and collaboration skills.

• Design Challenge/Case Study Presentation: Candidates may be asked to present a past project in detail or tackle a mini-design challenge related to Parsley Health's domain. This assesses their approach to ambiguity, strategic thinking, and communication.

• Cultural Fit & Collaboration Assessment: Discussions to gauge entrepreneurial mindset, comfort with ambiguity, and ability to mentor engineers.

• Final Interview: Potentially with the CEO or other key founders to discuss the strategic vision and finalize the engagement.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Process & Impact: Clearly articulate the "why" behind your design decisions, the problem you were solving, your specific contributions, and the tangible results achieved.

• Highlight Autonomy: Showcase projects where you took initiative, navigated ambiguity, and drove outcomes independently.

• Demonstrate System Thinking: Include examples of how you've contributed to or maintained design systems, ensuring consistency and scalability.

• Address AI Collaboration: Be prepared to discuss your experience working with or enabling AI in the design and development process.

• Tailor to Parsley Health: Research Parsley Health's mission, values, and current product. Connect your experience to their specific needs in functional medicine and growth.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Familiarize yourself with functional medicine and the challenges within health tech.

• Problem Framing: Practice breaking down abstract goals (e.g., "make onboarding feel like a relationship") into concrete design steps.

• Communicate Your Process: Be ready to explain your thought process clearly and concisely, especially when discussing design decisions and trade-offs.

• Articulate AI's Role: Be prepared to discuss how AI can be leveraged in design and development for both efficiency and innovation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on framing problems, empowering engineers with AI, and an entrepreneurial mindset suggests that the interview process will heavily evaluate strategic thinking, autonomy, and the ability to deliver high-quality work with minimal supervision. The portfolio is the primary tool for demonstrating these capabilities.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools: While not explicitly listed, a Product Designer in this context would typically be expected to be proficient in:

• Design & Prototyping Software: Figma (highly probable), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop), InVision, Framer.

• Collaboration Tools: Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace.

• Project Management: Tools like Asana, Jira, Trello (depending on how the founding team organizes work).

Analytics & Reporting:

• Experience with analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude) to understand user behavior and measure the impact of designs.

CRM & Automation:

• While not a direct CRM role, understanding how design impacts acquisition funnels (often linked to CRM and marketing automation) is beneficial.

📝 Enhancement Note: The job description emphasizes the designer's role in enabling engineers who use AI for prototyping. This suggests a need for strong design system skills and the ability to create well-documented, easily implementable design assets. Proficiency in Figma is almost a given for modern product design roles.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Mission-Driven: A strong commitment to improving healthcare and member well-being through functional medicine.

• Innovation & Agility: A willingness to experiment, embrace new technologies (like AI), and adapt quickly in a startup environment.

• Member-Centricity: A focus on understanding and meeting the needs of both members and clinicians.

• Ownership & Autonomy: Expectation that individuals take ownership of their work and operate with a high degree of independence.

• Data-Informed Decision Making: Using data to guide product development and growth strategies.

Collaboration Style:

• Direct & Transparent: Close collaboration with founders implies open communication and direct feedback loops.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Working closely with engineering and product management to bring designs to life.

• Mentorship-Oriented: The designer is expected to mentor engineers, fostering a collaborative learning environment.

• Outcome-Focused: Emphasis on shipping work and achieving measurable results rather than just completing tasks.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture likely values proactivity, a strong sense of purpose, and the ability to thrive in an environment where individuals are empowered to make significant contributions. The entrepreneurial spirit is key.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Ambiguity: Navigating abstract goals and defining concrete paths forward with limited initial direction.

• Scalability of Design: Ensuring designs are not only effective but also scalable across different product areas and can be implemented efficiently by engineers, especially those using AI.

• Balancing Growth and Clinical Needs: Designing for both acquisition (marketing site) and the complex needs of clinicians and members within a healthcare context.

• Remote Collaboration Effectiveness: Maintaining strong communication and alignment while working remotely and part-time.

• AI Integration Complexity: Effectively collaborating with engineers who are at the forefront of using AI in prototyping, requiring clear communication and robust design systems.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Dive into Health Tech: Gaining specialized knowledge and experience in the functional medicine and health tech sectors.

• AI in Design & Development: Becoming an expert in leveraging AI tools and processes for product design and development.

• Strategic Product Influence: Direct exposure to founding team discussions and product strategy.

• Design System Mastery: Contributing to and evolving a design system in a growing startup.

• Mentorship Experience: Developing leadership and mentoring skills by guiding engineers.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are inherent to a startup environment and a role that blends growth, operational tools, and user experience in a niche industry. The growth opportunities are significant for a designer looking to expand their expertise in health tech, AI, and strategic product involvement.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you took an abstract goal, like 'make onboarding feel like a relationship, not a form,' and turned it into a concrete design solution. What was your process, and what was the outcome?" (Assesses problem framing, strategic thinking, and impact).

• "How do you approach building or evolving a design system and component library, especially in a fast-paced environment where engineers are actively prototyping with AI?" (Assesses systems thinking, scalability, and AI collaboration).

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Parsley Health's mission and the functional medicine approach to healthcare?" (Assesses alignment with company values and industry).

• "How would you describe your ideal collaboration style with engineers and founding team members, especially in a remote, part-time contract capacity?" (Assesses collaboration and communication skills).

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Narrative Arc: Structure your case studies like compelling stories, clearly outlining the problem, your role, your process, your solutions, and the measurable results.

• Visual Clarity: Use high-quality visuals and prototypes to showcase your work. Ensure your UI and UX are clearly demonstrated.

• Process Transparency: Explain why you made certain design decisions, highlighting trade-offs and how you addressed user needs and business goals.

• Quantify Impact: Wherever possible, present metrics that demonstrate the value of your contributions (e.g., conversion rate improvements, engagement increases, time saved for clinicians).

• Highlight AI & Systems: Be ready to specifically discuss how your designs contribute to or leverage design systems and how you've integrated AI into your workflow or enabled others to do so.

📝 Enhancement Note: Preparation should focus on demonstrating how you can operate autonomously, think strategically about growth and operational efficiency, and integrate modern practices like AI into your design process. Your portfolio is your primary evidence.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this operations position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Greenhouse.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest case studies that best demonstrate your end-to-end product design skills, your ability to drive growth, your experience with systems thinking, and any relevant experience with healthcare or AI collaboration. Ensure each case study clearly outlines the problem, your process, your specific contributions, design decisions, and quantifiable impact.

• Optimize Your Resume: Highlight experience relevant to product design, growth initiatives, user experience, UI design, design systems, and any direct work in health tech. Use keywords from the job description and emphasize achievements over responsibilities.

• Prepare Your Presentation: Practice walking through your portfolio with a focus on framing abstract problems, detailing your problem-solving process, and articulating the business impact of your design solutions. Be ready to discuss how you'd approach the challenges at Parsley Health.

• Research Parsley Health: Understand their mission, their approach to functional medicine, their target audience (members and clinicians), and their current product offerings. This will help you tailor your application and ask informed questions.

⚠️ 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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