Founding Product Designer (UI/UX)
Location: / Remote
Type: Full-time/Contract
About 16VC
At 16VC, we're backing the future of AI & Tech.
We invest in and co-build category-defining companies across enterprise software, AI, and deep tech. Through our Venture Studio, we partner with exceptional founders from day zero helping validate ideas, design products, build technology, and accelerate companies from concept to launch.
We're looking for a Founding Product Designer who thrives in ambiguity, loves solving complex problems, and wants to shape products that power the infrastructure of tomorrow.
The Role
As a Founding Product Designer, you'll work at the earliest stages of company creation alongside founders, product managers, engineers, and venture builders.
You'll help transform bold ideas into intuitive, scalable products by owning the end-to-end design process from customer discovery and wireframes to polished user interfaces and design systems.
Rather than working on a single product, you'll have the opportunity to design products across multiple AI and enterprise software ventures.
What You'll Do
Design world-class user experiences for AI, enterprise software, and technology products.
Translate founder ideas into intuitive user journeys, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity interfaces.
Partner closely with Product Managers and Engineers throughout the product development lifecycle.
Conduct customer research, usability testing, and user interviews to validate product decisions.
Create and maintain scalable design systems and reusable UI components.
Shape product strategy by balancing user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility.
Design MVPs that enable founders to validate ideas quickly and reach product-market fit.
Help define product branding and visual identity for new ventures where appropriate.
Iterate rapidly based on customer feedback, analytics, and experimentation.
Support multiple ventures across the 16VC Studio portfolio.
What We're Looking For
3+ years of experience in Product Design, UX Design, or UI Design.
A strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end product design for web or mobile applications.
Expertise with Figma, prototyping, and modern design workflows.
Strong understanding of interaction design, information architecture, accessibility, and user-centred design.
Experience collaborating closely with product and engineering teams.
Comfortable working in fast-moving startup environments with high ownership.
Excellent communication and problem-solving skills.
Passion for startups, AI, enterprise software, and building products from zero to one.
Nice to Have
Experience designing AI, SaaS, enterprise software, fintech, or developer tools.
Experience designing dashboards, workflows, or data-intensive applications.
Basic understanding of front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, React).
Experience at an early-stage startup or venture studio.
Why Join 16VC?
Build products that become venture-backed companies.
Work directly with founders, investors, and experienced operators.
Design products from idea to launch with real ownership.
Help shape multiple startups instead of a single product.
Collaborate with ambitious teams building the next generation of enterprise software and AI companies.
Competitive compensation with equity opportunities where applicable.