Founding Designer
about us
At telli, we're building the first AI-native phone system.
Since launching last year at Y Combinator (the same investors behind Airbnb, Stripe, Twitch, Coinbase, and others), we've grown >$2M in annualized revenue with a team of only 12 people.
Today, many companies fail in their customer communication not because they don't care, but because they can't keep up. The sheer volume of calls forces to rely on low-quality outsourced call centers or have their internal teams waste hours on repetitive calls.
With telli, our customers now rely on AI voice agents that handle their repetitive calls, freeing human to focus on what matters - talking to customers when it counts. The result: higher efficiency, happier teams, and better customer experiences.
Legacy phone systems weren’t designed for an AI-first world. That is why we are building the first AI-native phone system that lets companies manage both their human and AI teams on one platform.
Our founding team knows this problem inside-out. We ran a 150-person internal call center at Enpal. We know how difficult and expensive it is to scale high-quality customer experience with phone calls.
The opportunity is massive!!! and we're just getting started. We're on a mission to let every company provide a world-class customer experience by ending the era of low-quality call centers.
about the role
This is a high-ownership role for a founding designer who cares about velocity and solving real customer problems. You won't just create mockups, you will own the entire design process end-to-end, speaking directly to customers and making core product and UX decisions. In short, you’ll have a significant impact on the direction of our high-growth, ambitious product.
You'll be our first full-time designer — with ownership over UX and UI across the entire product. This means you need to be comfortable designing for complex, AI-first workflows while maintaining the simplicity that makes our product accessible to non-technical users.
what you will do
collaborate closely with customers to understand their needs and design solutions that solve their problems
own the design process end-to-end for new features
identify new AI product opportunities, design concepts, and build prototypes with our customers
create new intuitive interfaces that make sense in an AI-first world where traditional UI patterns don't apply
work side-by-side with engineers to ship high-quality features quickly
your profile
work experience designing UX and UI for software, ideally in early-stage startups working on B2B SaaS products
you have great attention to detail and exceptional skills in product design (interaction design, visual design, and design systems)
you don’t limit yourself to just static designs in Figma, but build interactive prototypes (with tools like v0, Lovable, Cursor, or Figma Make etc.).
you love talking to customers to uncover real pain points and can independently drive the design processes from discovery through launch
you thrive in fast-paced and ambiguous environments. You’re comfortable with uncertainty, learn quickly from mistakes, and focus on what matters.
you care about shipping production-ready software, and have an eye for high-quality, well-crafted visual and interaction design, and a passion for UI details
you have a strong interest in AI and LLMs, and you’re excited by the design challenges of voice interfaces.
what makes you a great fit
you align with our principles
you take full ownership of projects
you want to work in-person in Berlin
you know what it takes to succeed in a fast-paced, high-ambiguity environment
you know how to prioritize high-leverage work
you want to work with a smart and driven team with (self-reported) low ego
you want to help build a multi-billion dollar company from the ground up
strong portfolio showcasing your work on complex, user-centered products
you may not make a good fit if…
you prefer a remote-first environment
you like to work on your own with minimum collaboration
you have no prior experience working with software engineering teams
you only want to work on visual design instead of the entire user experience
you think AI is just "hype" and doesn't provide real value
you want to work 9-5
perks
above-market pay & equity
access to any (AI) tool that makes you more productive
gym subscription
relocation support if you don't live in Berlin