Founding Design Engineer

Skiffra•Los Angeles, CA

11d•$200,000 - $235,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Skiffra is building AI-native orchestration systems for operational decision-making in physical industries, beginning with mining and natural resources. The Founding Design Engineer is the company’s first dedicated design hire and a senior frontend engineer with strong product-design instincts. This person will own the product experience end to end, from understanding field problems and designing solutions to building production code and shipping it. The role will establish Skiffra’s design system, interaction patterns, reusable components, frontend standards, and product quality bar. A central challenge is building trust in AI-driven recommendations: making them understandable, transparent about uncertainty, and easy for users to question or override. The engineer will spend regular time on site with operators and field teams to understand real workflows and translate those observations into simple, fast, dependable software. The position is hybrid, with regular in-person collaboration in Los Angeles or the San Francisco Bay Area. Candidates must be authorized to work in the country where the role is based; visa sponsorship is unavailable. The position is eligible for standard benefits, including health insurance and retirement plans, and may qualify for company bonus and incentive programs.

Requirements

At least 5 years of experience building and shipping complex production frontends.
Production-level skills in React, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, with the ability to independently build and ship complex frontend applications.
Exceptional product-design and UX judgment, strong visual-design skills, and fluency in Figma.
Daily hands-on use of AI tools such as Claude Code or Codex to prototype and ship, with the ability to review, debug, and take ownership of production work.
Track record of owning products or significant features end to end, from design through engineering and deployment.
Experience designing complex workflows or data-rich applications, such as dashboards, planning tools, or decision-support software, and making them intuitive.
Experience designing AI-driven or data-driven products where users need to understand, trust, and act on system outputs.
Experience building 0-to-1 products, including establishing design systems and frontend standards.
Solid understanding of frontend architecture, component libraries, responsive design, accessibility, and performance.
Curiosity about physical operations and willingness to visit sites.
Comfort with ambiguity, moving quickly, judging when work is ready to ship, and maintaining pride in shipped quality.
Authorization to work in the country where the role is based; visa sponsorship is not available.

Nice To Haves

Experience in mining, resources, energy, logistics, or other industrial settings.
Experience with offline-first, mobile, or field-based applications.
Experience with real-time data or agentic workflows.
Experience as an early hire at a startup.

Responsibilities

Own frontend development and product design for Skiffra products, taking features from concept through production.
Design AI interactions that surface recommendations, communicate confidence and uncertainty, explain reasoning, and keep people in control of final decisions.
Turn complex operational workflows and real-time data into interfaces that help planners, site leaders, and operators make decisions quickly.
Build the design system, reusable component library, and frontend standards from the ground up.
Design for administrative offices, control rooms, and site environments with unreliable connectivity and time-sensitive decisions.
Regularly visit sites with operators and field teams to observe workflows, test prototypes, and apply findings to the product.
Work with product, engineering, and field teams to prototype, ship, and continuously improve products.