Design Director (Full-time - Hybrid)

Description

• Client also offers 100% coverage of employee premiums for medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, daily DoorDash lunch credits, gym membership, and 401k matching.
• Notes- 5 - 10 years of experience in product/UX design with some leadership experience
• Designed visually complex products with large surface areas / net-new UI
• Has managed or mentored a design team
• Hands-on IC craft — comfortable designing directly in Figma, giving detailed feedback
• Startup or high-ownership / multi-priority team experience (nice-to-have; larger-company fine if the team carried a lot of ownership)

Hard skills

• Figma
• Strong portfolio showing end-to-end product design work

Required

• Portfolio demonstrating end-to-end product design- Portfolio link
• Able to work hybrid in New York office (4 days a week in person, Wednesday wfh)

About this role

What we're looking for?

• We need a design leader with 5-8+ years of experience in product/UX design who has led or mentored design teams and can operate as both a strategic leader and hands-on IC. You should be comfortable working in a fast-paced startup environment with complex, visually rich products and have a track record of improving design systems and shipping high-quality user experiences. Bonus points if you have experience with EdTech, AI-powered products, or platforms with large visual surface areas.

What you'll do:

• Define and drive the overall design vision and strategy for Client's AI-powered K–12 learning platform
• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of designers while jumping in hands-on to give detailed feedback and design in Figma yourself
• Own and improve Client's design system to ensure consistency and scalability across a complex, multi-surface product
• Partner closely with co-founders, Product, and Engineering to shape solutions and prioritize design work across the product roadmap
• Oversee design research and usability testing programs to inform data-driven product decisions
• Balance high-level strategic leadership with direct contribution to critical design projects — this is not a purely managerial role
• 5 - 10 years of experience in product/UX design with some leadership experience

Equity

• Meaningful equity package (stock options) in a Series A startup that has raised $22.5M from top-tier investors including New Enterprise Associates and AI Fund. Client launched a major new product line in March 2025 and is growing rapidly, offering significant upside potential.
• Visa sponsorship not available
• Visa sponsorship is not available for this role. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Hybrid work policy

• Hybrid in New York City office — 4 days in-office (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) with Wednesdays work from home. Office is a 16,000 sq ft former WeWork space that holds ~40 people, pet-friendly with great amenities.
• Full-time position
• Location - New York, NY
• Tech stack - Figma, Design Systems, Prototyping Tools, User Research Tools, Usability Testing

About Client

• Client is the first and only fully interactive, end-to-end AI operating system that replaces the entire K–12 teaching and learning tech stack.We unite curriculum, lesson planning, grading, feedback, tutoring, translation, analytics, and student support in one simple system built for K–12 education. Unlike other AI assistants, Client does not sit on top of classroom tools. It replaces them with something better.
• Team size - 75 employees
• Founded - 2022
• Company locations - Palo Alto, California, United States

About the team

• Client is a ~75-person, Series A company that moves fast and cares deeply about its mission to transform K–12 education through AI. The team is led by passionate co-founders who are deeply involved in product and design decisions, creating an environment where every team member's work has visible, meaningful impact.
• What it's like to work here:
• Mission-driven culture: The team is upfront that this isn't a clock-in, clock-out environment. They hire people who genuinely care about improving educational outcomes for students and are willing to put in the work to make it happen.
• High ownership, high impact: Team members own entire problem domains and work cross-functionally across engineering, product, and design. You'll have direct access to co-founders and leadership.
• Fast-paced and demanding: Client launched a new product line on March 3rd and is actively expanding into international markets. The pace is intense — you'll juggle multiple complex projects, pivot quickly, and ship at high velocity.
• Collaborative and in-person: The team works out of a spacious 16,000 sq ft former WeWork office in New York City, in-office four days a week (Wednesdays work from home). The office is pet-friendly — people bring their dogs — and has great amenities with plenty of space for a team of ~40 in New York.
• Strong technical foundation: The engineering team is strong and technical, and the company values people who can collaborate credibly across disciplines — whether that's frontend UX, backend systems, or AI/ML components.

Tech stack

• Figma, Design Systems, Prototyping Tools, User Research Tools, Usability Testing

The product

• Client is the first and only fully interactive, end-to-end AI operating system that replaces the entire K–12 teaching and learning tech stack. Rather than sitting on top of existing classroom tools like other AI assistants, Client replaces them with something better — uniting curriculum, lesson planning, grading, feedback, tutoring, translation, analytics, and student support in one simple system.

  Client's platform consists of three core pillars:

  •  

  Content Creation Tools:

  • Teachers can create lessons, assessments, and full courses directly in Client, assign them to students, and grade them using AI — all within a single platform.
  • Students interact with the tool directly as well.
  • Multi-Tiered Support System (MTSS): As students interact with the platform, Client captures student data and insights, providing them to administrators and teachers so they can meet every student where they're at with personalized support.
  • AI-Native LMS: A full learning management system built from the ground up with AI at its core. Client is actively partnering with a large country in Latin America where it serves as their sole AI edtech tool.

  Originally founded as a computer science curriculum provider — enabling any teacher (math, gym, or otherwise) to teach CS immediately — Client has expanded significantly into a comprehensive AI operating system for all of K–12 education. The product is highly visual with large surface areas and complex UI, and much of what the team designs is net new with no existing design paradigm to follow.

Interview

• Hiring Manager Screen (45 minutes)
• Design Assessment (1 hour)
• Final Panel (On-site) (1 hour)
• Offer

“Cleo Consulting is an equal opportunity employer (Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled)”