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Software Product Design Engineer

Y Combinator
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San Francisco, CA$185k - $485kFull-timePosted 6mo ago

About the role

Software Product Design Engineer at Y Combinator, combining design and frontend engineering to build polished product experiences for internal tools, public products, and AI-driven workflows.

Responsibilities

  • Design compelling, clear UI/UX and produce high-quality mocks that demonstrate strong product taste.
  • Turn design mocks into pixel-perfect, production-ready frontends using modern web tech.
  • Iterate on existing interfaces by improving layout, interaction quality, motion, and design consistency.
  • Work closely with engineers, partners, and stakeholders — own the design and implementation of features end-to-end.
  • Rapidly prototype and “vibe code” to explore ideas, gather feedback, and iterate quickly.
  • Contribute to design systems, component libraries, and patterns that raise frontend quality across YC.
  • Stay close to users: talk to them, watch how they use the product, and improve the experience based on real signals.

Qualifications

  • Strong UX and visual design skills with proven taste and craftsmanship.
  • Frontend engineering experience — comfort building real UI in React, TypeScript, and modern CSS.
  • Ability to move fluidly between design tools (Figma, etc.) and frontend code.
  • A “get things done” mindset: you ship quickly, iterate based on feedback, and take ownership.
  • Care for polish — typography, spacing, micro-interactions, and transitions.
  • Comfort with ambiguity: define scope and drive things forward with little direction.

Skills

Required:UX designFrontend developmentDesign toolingPrototyping
Nice to have:Design systems

Benefits

  • Medical, vision, and dental plans.
  • Infertility benefit.
  • STD/LTD, life insurance, commuter benefits, flexible spending account, health savings account.
  • 401(k) + 4% matching.
  • Generous parental leave, paid holidays, and flexible paid time off policy.
Last updated Oct 21, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Y Combinator

Not your average fixed point combinator.

Make something people want.

Company profileWebsite

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