Founding Design Engineer

🏛️ About GovWell

We the people (and the taxpayers) deserve good government — but today, interacting with government services is often frustrating and inefficient. GovWell is building the AI-powered platform that transforms how governments serve communities, starting with local agencies.

Our first product helps municipal and county governments modernize complex services like permitting and licensing. GovWell combines a highly configurable SaaS system of record with generative AI that automates work for staff, guides residents through services, and is radically simple to deploy.

Founded in 2023, GovWell powers 3,000+ critical processes for agencies in 29 states serving millions of residents. We’ve raised $9.5M in seed funding from Work-Bench and Bienville Capital, and work in person at our HQ in New York City. Read more about our founding story in TechCrunch.

☀️ Why GovWell?

• A mission that matters: Building AI-powered products to fix outdated government systems isn’t just a technical challenge—it’s a historic opportunity to improve our foundational relationship with government and ensure trillions of tax dollars result in high quality services. WATCH: Mission & Vision with CEO & Co-Founder Troy LeCaire

• Real-world impact: GovWell’s product is the system of record for government services that affect millions of Americans. From streamlining permitting for small businesses to accelerating affordable housing development, your work will make an immediate difference.

• Join a startup in hyper-growth: We’ve found product-market fit and are scaling the business very quickly (4X ARR growth in the last year). As an early team member, you’ll learn what it takes to build a successful startup. You’ll work closely with the founders while enjoying exceptional autonomy and ownership over your work.

🌟 Role overview

GovWell is hiring a Founding Design Engineer to own the frontend foundations that define the quality, accessibility, and coherence of our product.

This role sits at the intersection of design and engineering. You will translate interaction patterns into durable, reusable systems that make it easy for teams to ship consistent, high-quality user experiences. You will also raise the bar on accessibility, performance, and frontend architecture across the platform.

Because GovWell powers government services used by people with diverse backgrounds and levels of digital fluency, accessibility is not a checkbox for us; it’s central to delivering equitable public services. You will help ensure our product is inclusive, interpretable, and usable for everyone it touches.

Your work will ensure GovWell feels fast, intuitive, and unified as the product expands. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role based in our NYC hybrid environment (3+ days per week in office).

💻 What you’ll do

• Own frontend architecture foundations, including shared component systems, state patterns, and UI primitives.

• Translate system-level design direction into composable, reusable React components.

• Establish and enforce accessibility standards across the platform, including WCAG compliance and inclusive interaction patterns.

• Improve performance across high-volume operational workflows.

• Design and implement safe, interpretable human-in-the-loop interaction primitives for AI-powered features.

• Embed early with product pods to shape implementation strategy and maintain frontend consistency.

• Continuously refactor and consolidate existing surfaces to reduce entropy and improve usability over time.

🧠 Who you are

• 5+ years building complex SaaS frontend systems in React and TypeScript.

• Experience designing, scaling, or maintaining a shared design system.

• Strong frontend systems thinker who builds primitives and reusable patterns rather than one-off pages.

• Deep familiarity with accessibility standards, inclusive design, and performance optimization.

• Comfortable translating design intent into durable technical abstractions.

• Experience collaborating closely with product designers in fast-moving environments.

• Able to guide frontend direction without becoming a bottleneck.

• Startup-oriented operator who moves quickly while preserving quality.

• Aligned with GovWell’s core values.

👥 Meet the team

• Ben Cohen, Co-Founder and CTO.

  • Ex Uber, Amazon, UIPath.

  • BA summa cum laude CS, Princeton

• Richard Le, Full-stack Eng

  • Ex Microsoft

  • BA summa cum laude CS, UNC Chapel Hill

• Zach Stecker, Mobile Eng

  • Prev Senior Eng at TodayTix

  • CS, Princeton

• Michael Sosnick, Fullstack Eng

  • Ex Meta SWE, Product at UMG

  • CS & Econ, UPenn

• Ethan Fuld, Fullstack Eng

  • Ex Amazon, PwC

  • Info Science, Cornell

• Portia Wilson, Data Scientist

  • Prev CompStak, Vitech Systems

  • BA Math & Econ, Lafayette & MS Data Science, Stevens

• Noah Bell, Fullstack Eng

  • Ex Biodock (YC W21)

  • BA summa cum laude, UNC Chapel Hill

💸 Compensation and benefits

Compensation within the posted salary band will be commensurate with experience. All offers will include:

• Competitive base salary.

• Equity / stock options.

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.

• 401(k) program.

• Flexible PTO.