Head of Design

Cartesia•San Francisco, CA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Cartesia is looking for a Head of Product Design to shape how developers experience our cutting-edge AI voice and sound generation technology. This is a hands-on management role where you'll own our getting started experience end-to-end while building design cohesiveness across all product surfaces. You'll be the design voice at the table, driving our product strategy through deep competitive analysis and establishing a world-class design culture from the ground up.

Requirements

First-line management experience leading designers while maintaining a strong IC practice
Exceptional design sense with a portfolio demonstrating craft across visual design, interaction design, and systems thinking
Comfort designing for technical audiences—APIs, developer tools, and B2B products (not purely consumer-focused)
Deep fluency with design tools and ability to move quickly from concept to high-fidelity execution
Experience working alongside world-class designers at companies known for design excellence
Ability to thrive in ambiguity, ship iteratively, and wear multiple hats in a startup environment

Nice To Haves

Experience at leading tech companies, combined with startup experience
Background designing developer experiences
Technical depth or coding experience that enables stronger collaboration with engineers
Experience in the AI/ML product space or adjacent technical infrastructure products
Track record of establishing design culture and processes at early-stage companies

Responsibilities

Own the complete getting started experience, from first discovery to successful API integration, ensuring every touchpoint feels intuitive and drives activation
Establish and maintain design systems that create visual and interaction consistency across our developer dashboard, API interfaces, documentation, and web properties
Conduct regular competitive analyses of AI infrastructure and developer tool companies, surfacing product gaps and opportunities to inform our roadmap
Push the bar on craft and quality across every pixel and interaction, transforming fragmented experiences into a unified product narrative
Manage a small team of designers with hands-on coaching, career development, and recruiting as we scale
Partner closely with engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to ship impactful features that balance technical capabilities with user needs
Translate complex technical concepts into intuitive experiences designed specifically for developer audiences
Advocate for design perspective in product strategy discussions and help shape what we build next
Foster a culture of high craft, rapid iteration, and user empathy that becomes foundational to how Cartesia operates
Drive measurable improvements in how Cartesia shows up, from time-to-value metrics to the design culture we're known for