Product Design Lead
About Cartesia
Our mission is to build the next generation of AI: ubiquitous, interactive intelligence that runs wherever you are. Today, not even the best models can continuously process and reason over a year-long stream of audio, video and text—1B text tokens, 10B audio tokens and 1T video tokens—let alone do this on-device.
We're pioneering the model architectures that will make this possible. Our founding team met as PhDs at the Stanford AI Lab, where we invented State Space Models or SSMs, a new primitive for training efficient, large-scale foundation models. Our team combines deep expertise in model innovation and systems engineering paired with a design-minded product engineering team to build and ship cutting edge models and experiences.
We're funded by leading investors at Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with Factory, Conviction, A Star, General Catalyst, SV Angel, Databricks and others. We're fortunate to have the support of many amazing advisors, and 90+ angels across many industries, including the world's foremost experts in AI.
About the Role
Cartesia is looking for a Product Design Lead to shape how developers experience our cutting-edge AI voice and sound generation technology. This is a hands-on management role where you'll own our getting started experience end-to-end while building design cohesiveness across all product surfaces. You'll be the design voice at the table, driving our product strategy through deep competitive analysis and establishing a world-class design culture from the ground up.
Your Impact
Own the complete getting started experience, from first discovery to successful API integration, ensuring every touchpoint feels intuitive and drives activation
Establish and maintain design systems that create visual and interaction consistency across our developer dashboard, API interfaces, documentation, and web properties
Conduct regular competitive analyses of AI infrastructure and developer tool companies, surfacing product gaps and opportunities to inform our roadmap
Push the bar on craft and quality across every pixel and interaction, transforming fragmented experiences into a unified product narrative
Manage a small team of designers with hands-on coaching, career development, and recruiting as we scale
Partner closely with engineering, product, and go-to-market teams to ship impactful features that balance technical capabilities with user needs
Translate complex technical concepts into intuitive experiences designed specifically for developer audiences
Advocate for design perspective in product strategy discussions and help shape what we build next
Foster a culture of high craft, rapid iteration, and user empathy that becomes foundational to how Cartesia operates
Drive measurable improvements in how Cartesia shows up, from time-to-value metrics to the design culture we're known for
What You Bring
First-line management experience leading designers while maintaining a strong IC practice
Exceptional design sense with a portfolio demonstrating craft across visual design, interaction design, and systems thinking
Comfort designing for technical audiences—APIs, developer tools, and B2B products (not purely consumer-focused)
Deep fluency with design tools and ability to move quickly from concept to high-fidelity execution
Experience working alongside world-class designers at companies known for design excellence
Ability to thrive in ambiguity, ship iteratively, and wear multiple hats in a startup environment
Nice to Have
Experience at leading tech companies, combined with startup experience
Background designing developer experiences
Technical depth or coding experience that enables stronger collaboration with engineers
Experience in the AI/ML product space or adjacent technical infrastructure products
Track record of establishing design culture and processes at early-stage companies
What We Offer
🍽 Lunch, dinner and snacks at the office
🏥 Fully covered medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees
🏦 401(k)
✈️ Relocation and immigration support
🦖 Your own personal Yoshi
Our Culture
🏢 We’re an in-person team based out of San Francisco. We love being in the office, hanging out together, and learning from each other every day.
🚢 We ship fast. All of our work is novel and cutting edge, and execution speed is paramount. We have a high bar, and we don’t sacrifice quality or design along the way.
🤝 We support each other. We have an open & inclusive culture that’s focused on giving everyone the resources they need to succeed.