Design Engineer

Shaped is the real-time retrieval engine for search, feeds and agents. We are on a mission to power every product and content experience with world-class search and recommendations.

Shaped is backed by top-tier investors like Y Combinator and Madrona; with executives from Meta, Google, Amazon and Uber. We’re building an elite team to define the future of how users discover what matters most.

We're excited to work with you. Come build the future of AI with us!

We’re hiring our Product / Design Engineer to define how Shaped feels, not just how it works. You’ll own user-facing experiences end-to-end, turning complex AI systems into intuitive, elegant products. Design is core to this role — you’ll shape interfaces, interactions, and systems with a sharp eye for UX, ensuring everything we ship is clear, thoughtful, and high-impact.

• Design and build end-to-end product experiences — from wireframes and prototypes to polished, production-ready interfaces

• Own frontend architecture using React, Next.js, and TypeScript, ensuring scalability, performance, and maintainability

• Translate complex AI retrieval and ranking workflows into intuitive, elegant user experiences

• Develop and evolve our design system — components, patterns, typography, spacing, and interaction standards

• Collaborate closely with Product, Customer Success, and GTM to turn customer feedback into thoughtful UX improvements

• Ship quickly, run experiments, and iterate based on real usage data

• Maintain a high bar for code quality with strong testing, monitoring, accessibility, and performance best practices

• 4-6 years of full-stack/frontend engineering experience - expertise in React, Next.js, and TypeScript

• Strong product and design experience — you’ve collaborated closely with designers or led design yourself

• Comfortable working in Figma and contributing to wireframes, prototypes, and design systems

• You think in systems — spacing, typography, interaction states, motion, and accessibility matter to you

• A portfolio that demonstrates polished, thoughtful product work with strong UX decisions

• Comfortable making UX decisions, not just implementing mocks

• You’ve shipped user-facing features where clarity and usability directly impacted adoption

• Outcome-driven: you measure success in engagement, retention, and customer impact

• Energized by working cross-functionally with product, GTM, and customer teams

• Excited to work in-person in NYC with a small, high-talent team

• Experience as an early engineer at a startup or former founder

• Background in design (product, UX, or visual) before becoming more technical — especially if you leaned into engineering as AI products became more complex

• Experience building AI-native, data-heavy, or highly interactive interfaces

• Experience developing or maintaining a design system

• Strong product intuition paired with technical depth

⚕️Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance

🏦 Flexible Spending Account (FSA), Health Savings Account (HSA)

🦮 Expert Healthcare Guidance

💵 Retirement savings

🎄 Company holidays each year

🏖️ Unlimited days for personal time each year

🚌 Flex Commuter Benefits

🥤Office is fully-stocked with drinks and snacks to fuel your work day.

🍽️ Staying late? Dinner is on us