Founding UX/UI Designer – Physical AI Infrastructure

Glacian•Pittsburgh, PA

7h•Hybrid

About The Position

This is a founding UX/UI Designer role focused on Physical AI Infrastructure. The ideal candidate is passionate about solving complex problems and making intricate systems clear, trustworthy, and human-centered. This role offers a unique opportunity to define the design language for a groundbreaking AI infrastructure platform that is reshaping how the infrastructure powering the AI economy operates. The position involves working directly with the founding team to establish the visual language, design system, and interaction patterns for the Glacian platform. The designer will own the full design arc from user research to high-fidelity design and engineering handoff, translating complex AI-driven insights and multi-role operational workflows into clear, actionable interfaces. The role also includes shaping the design culture of an early-stage company and contributing to making mission-critical infrastructure more efficient and sustainable. There is potential for growth into a leadership role with early-stage equity.

Requirements

A track record of 5+ years in enterprise UX/UI and a knack for making the complicated simple, where clarity, trust, and operational safety are non-negotiable.
Experience deploying and operating software in on-premise, operationally constrained, and reliability-critical environments.
Proficiency with AI-assisted design tools, including one or more of the following: Figma AI, Adobe Firefly, MidJourney, Runway, or equivalent platforms.
Familiarity with emerging AI-assisted design methods and their application to workflow and interface design.
Demonstrated experience conducting user research and usability testing in enterprise, industrial, or operational contexts.
Strong command of design systems: the ability to build, document, and steward component libraries and visual standards that scale across a growing product.
Experience collaborating directly with engineering teams to ensure implementation fidelity, including the ability to communicate design specifications clearly and resolve implementation tradeoffs.
High comfort level operating in an early-stage environment where roadmaps shift, priorities evolve, and design decisions are often made with incomplete information. Comfort with ambiguity is essential.
Clear, effective communication — written and verbal — across design, product, and engineering audiences, including the ability to translate design rationale into terms that inform and align non-design stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Experience designing industrial operations software, DCIM (Data Center Infrastructure Management), or enterprise facility management platforms.
Familiarity with AI dashboards, predictive analytics, and multi-role operational workflows—especially where latency, alerting, and quick decisions are critical.
Early-stage startup experience: building design processes and tools from scratch, setting standards, and iterating quickly under pressure.
Leadership: mentoring designers, establishing team processes, or managing product design.
Knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) for dashboards and operational interfaces.
Familiarity with data visualization and designing high-density information displays.
Practical, down-to-earth, and collaborative — someone who brings solutions, not friction, to a high-performing founding team.
Fast-moving, adaptive, and self-directed: able to identify what needs designing next without waiting to be told.
Deeply committed to communicating security, reliability, and safety through every design decision — not as a constraint, but as a design value.
Proficient with AI design tools and genuinely interested in how AI-assisted methods are changing what designers can do and how fast they can do it.
Able to mentor and scale a design function: someone who builds process and culture, not just artifacts.
Skilled at balancing and advocating for the needs of multiple stakeholders in high-stakes operational environments, without losing sight of the user.

Responsibilities

Create dashboards, alerts, workflows, and visualizations that deliver clear, actionable, real-time data to operators, engineers, and managers in demanding settings.
Build visual hierarchies and interactions that instantly convey safety, reliability, and system health.
Design every detail to inspire user confidence and minimize cognitive effort when it matters most.
Lead user research, interviews, and usability tests with enterprise and industrial users of all backgrounds.
Turn insight into design improvements and champion user needs related to product decisions while ensuring safety, compliance, and technical requirements are met.
Create wireframes, prototypes, and polished designs for the entire product.
Build and manage the design system—including UI components, visual standards, and interaction patterns—to guarantee consistency and clear communication.
Work closely with engineers to deliver precise, reliable implementations.
Develop and maintain the design system—including components, visual guidelines, motion, and patterns—for use across the platform.
Make standards easy for engineers to access and follow.
Advocate for design in product and engineering discussions, clearly explain design decisions to non-design stakeholders, and help guide product direction.
As the team expands, mentor junior designers and help build the design culture, processes, and tools that drive progress.