AI Design Engineer

Location: Remote. Company has an office in the Miami / Ft. Lauderdale area.

Compensation: Competitive base and meaningful equity in a rapidly growing startup. Full-time preferred; open to contract-to-hire for an exceptional builder.

Some people can design a beautiful interface. Some people can build one. We are looking for the rare person who does both, does both fast, and treats AI tools as a natural extension of how they work.

About Phoenix Technologies

Phoenix is the Autonomous Commerce Platform for DTC founders. We unify storefronts, checkout, payments, and operations into one AI-native platform where agents handle the operational grind and merchants focus on growth: making the most money, with the least headache, on their own terms.

We set out to build the "Shopify of Direct Response," and along the way we recognized something bigger. Direct response is roughly a third of all ecommerce transactions, a trillion-dollar market chronically overlooked by Silicon Valley. The merchants who run it are obsessive about tooling. They live and die by velocity, conversion, and margin. They have no brand moats, so they compete purely on operations, which is exactly what makes them the earliest and fastest adopters of AI agents in commerce.

This is a category-defining bet, and we are running at it from a position of strength.

Where we are today

• 8-figure ARR, growing 100%+ YoY (top 0.5% of all startups launched in 2024)
• Rapid merchant adoption and expanding market presence
• Industry-leading NPS score
• 70% of our new deals come as referrals from existing merchants
• We've activated more merchants in Q1 2026 than in the previous two years
• Venture-backed by operators and investors with a track record of building and scaling category leaders

We out-execute the legacy platforms because we behave like a Silicon Valley technology company. Most of our competitors are cash cows: less professionally run, with limited innovation in over a decade. We bring real professionalism and pace to a space that has grown complacent.

Why This Role Exists

Our merchants live and die by conversion rate, and so does our UI. For them, design quality is not aesthetics; it is revenue. Every screen we ship either makes a merchant money or costs them money, and they can tell the difference within a day.

Our product team gets new pages roughed out and wired against our component library fast. What we do not have is the person who takes those pages from working to great: the layout, the flow, the small moments that make software feel effortless. That person works in code, not only in Figma, and ships.

Here is the loop. Our product lead sketches the first idea of a new page and wires up the logic. You take it from there and own the outcome: how it feels, how it converts, whether merchants can use it without thinking. Then we put it in front of merchants, you hear what they say firsthand, and we go again. If the wiring is wrong for the merchant, say so and fix it. You are in the merchant conversations, not reading a summary of them.

This is not a marketing or brand design role; we have someone great for that. This is hardcore UX and front-end, with the taste of a designer, the hands of an engineer, and the instincts of a PM. The last part is not a bonus here; it is part of the job.

What You'll Own

• How the product feels. Turn first-pass pages into polished, production-ready UI, and design and build new flows end to end, from idea to shipped, on our Storybook component system.
• The merchant's reality. Sit in on merchant calls and demos, read the support tickets, watch the session replays, and turn what you learn into design decisions. You know our top merchants by name and what each one is trying to do this quarter.
• The numbers your screens drive. Conversion, activation, time to value. When you redesign a flow, you know which number it should move, and you check whether it did.
• Quality that lasts. Write and run Playwright test cases so what you ship stays working.
• Pace. Use Claude Code, Claude Design, and whatever else gets the job done. We ship in days, not quarters.

What Success Looks Like in 90 Days

Day 30. You have shipped production UI in your first week and every week since. You know the existing product like the back of your hand. You have been on merchant calls and can describe our ICP's daily workflow without notes.

Day 60. You own the design-to-ship loop for at least one product area. A screen you redesigned from merchant feedback is live, and you can say what changed because of it.

Day 90. The product visibly feels better everywhere you have touched it, merchants have said so unprompted, and there is at least one number (conversion, activation, task completion) that moved because of your work.

Who You Are

• A designer's eye. You have a real sense of beauty and you sweat the details.
• Commercial instinct. You know who the merchant is and what they are trying to do before you touch a pixel. You want to be in customer calls and session replays, and you measure your work in conversion and activation, not just craft.
• Front-end skills. You are fluent in modern frameworks and you ship your own work.
• UX depth. You think in flows, states, and mobile, and you know what makes an interface easy.
• AI fluency. You already build with Claude and similar tools, and you are measurably faster because of it.
• Startup-forged. You want to iterate hard and see your work go live in days, and you have thrived in fast, resource-constrained, high-intensity environments.

We care more about what you can do than how many years you have done it. Some of the best people for this role are early in their careers and unusually sharp with AI tools. If that is you, apply.

Our Stack

Storybook against our design system, modern front-end frameworks, and Playwright for automated testing. Claude Code and Claude Design are a real part of the daily workflow here, not a garnish.

Huge Plus

• Commerce, checkout, or payments experience, or any role where conversion rate was the scoreboard.
• Experience with design systems and component libraries.
• Motion and interaction design.
• A design-school background in UX.
• You have run your own store, product, or side project with real users and know what it feels like to own the outcome.

Our Values

We are a value-driven company. These aren't words that we just put on a wall. They dictate how we hire, fire, and promote.

All In to Win. Operate with urgency and a relentless focus on excellence.

A Players Only. Build and maintain exceptional talent density. Pure meritocracy.

Merchant First. Every decision is measured by merchant impact.

Entrepreneurial Spirit. Move quickly, stay resourceful, and take ownership.

No Ego. The best ideas win regardless of title or tenure. No BS politics.

Phoenix is mission-first and performance-driven. We operate with urgency, give direct feedback, and expect high ownership. If you thrive under pressure and love building in fast-moving environments, you'll do great here. If you strongly prioritize predictability, comfort, and work/life separation, this 100% isn't the right role.

How to Apply

Skip the cover letter. Send us one thing you built that you are proud of, and one sentence on why. If it is live, send the link. If it is a prototype, even better. If it moved a real number for real users, tell us which one. We would rather see the work than read about it.