Design Engineer

HUD•San Francisco, CA

13d

About The Position

At HUD, we are building the future of how companies and individuals will train and evaluate AI. We believe that in the future, almost all data that is used to align LLMs will go through HUD. Our mission is bold: We are trusted and loved by foundation labs, fortune 500s and fast growing startups. We are an elite team of former founders, ML researchers published in top journals, Olympiad medalists and developers who have built top consumer apps. Who You Are Code-first builder with strong design judgment You're a front-end engineer with an excellent eye for design and a deep respect for users. You can debate Server Components vs. Client Components as easily as you can reason about clarity, hierarchy, and cognitive load. Deeply fluent in the modern web stack React, Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind are core to your work. You understand performance, accessibility, and scalability, and you write code that supports both speed and long-term maintainability. Obsessive about craft and details You notice when animations feel off by 50ms, when loading states create friction, or when contrast ratios miss accessibility standards. You care because small details meaningfully shape how people experience and trust a product. Product-oriented front-end engineer You're comfortable across the entire front-end surface area: API integration, state management, responsive layouts, and micro-interactions. Bonus if you can occasionally step into Python or data-heavy backends to better understand the systems you're building on. Owner, not executor You take responsibility for outcomes, not just implementation. You prototype quickly, gather feedback, iterate thoughtfully, and ship with confidence. Product-minded and user-centered You advocate for users, push back on designs that don't serve them, and suggest better approaches. You think deeply about how people explore, interpret, and act on complex information. Comfortable in ambiguity You're energized by open-ended problems—especially when the challenge is helping users make sense of something powerful but unfamiliar.

Requirements

Code-first builder with strong design judgment
You're a front-end engineer with an excellent eye for design and a deep respect for users. You can debate Server Components vs. Client Components as easily as you can reason about clarity, hierarchy, and cognitive load.
Deeply fluent in the modern web stack
React, Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind are core to your work. You understand performance, accessibility, and scalability, and you write code that supports both speed and long-term maintainability.
Obsessive about craft and details
You notice when animations feel off by 50ms, when loading states create friction, or when contrast ratios miss accessibility standards. You care because small details meaningfully shape how people experience and trust a product.
Product-oriented front-end engineer
You're comfortable across the entire front-end surface area: API integration, state management, responsive layouts, and micro-interactions.
Owner, not executor
You take responsibility for outcomes, not just implementation. You prototype quickly, gather feedback, iterate thoughtfully, and ship with confidence.
Product-minded and user-centered
You advocate for users, push back on designs that don't serve them, and suggest better approaches. You think deeply about how people explore, interpret, and act on complex information.
Comfortable in ambiguity
You're energized by open-ended problems—especially when the challenge is helping users make sense of something powerful but unfamiliar.

Nice To Haves

Bonus if you can occasionally step into Python or data-heavy backends to better understand the systems you're building on.

Responsibilities

Build the core experiences that define hud.ai
Own and ship primary user-facing features across the platform—creation flows, configuration tools, exploration interfaces, and interaction patterns. Your work will directly shape how people experience and trust hud.ai.
Create systems that scale with our mission
Architect reusable component libraries, define front-end patterns, and optimize performance so our product remains fast, accessible, and reliable as usage and scope grow.
Set a high bar for quality and care
Write clean, well-typed code, build accessible components, and implement thoughtful interactions. Your work will help establish what "excellent" looks like at hud.ai.
Collaborate to shape direction, not just execution
Partner with design, product, and engineering to refine ideas, influence roadmap decisions, and ensure what we build aligns with our mission and values.

Benefits

We work on problems that matter
At hud.ai, we're focused on helping people better understand and work with complex systems. The problems are hard, but the impact is real.
There is meaningful ownership
We offer competitive compensation and equity, with the opportunity to have real influence in a company at a pivotal stage.
We care about craft and peers
You'll work with thoughtful, driven teammates who value clarity, integrity, and doing things the right way. These are peers who you will form bonds with and grow with over your career.

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