Design Engineer

About Maincode

Maincode is an applied AI lab. We translate research into real-world tools: interfaces that support decision-making, surface insights, and express complex ideas with clarity. We believe AI’s next leap isn’t scale - it’s design. Our work bridges research and interface, helping people understand, navigate, and collaborate with intelligent systems.

You’ll join the Design Engineering Group (DEG) - a small, embedded team working across brand, product, and early-stage prototypes. We care deeply about craft, clarity, and momentum.

The Role

We’re hiring a Design Engineer to help build demo-ready interfaces, support early AI prototypes, and expand our internal design systems and tools. This is a hybrid role: part engineering, part design.

You’ll work closely with our Design Engineering Lead and collaborate with research and product teams. Some days you’ll refine a branded microsite; other days you’ll prototype a new interaction pattern for an Ollama-powered tool. Your work will balance polish with pragmatism: knowing when to push fidelity, and when to simplify.

What You’ll Work On

Core Work

• Build and maintain high-quality layouts and components across Maincode and partner surfaces

• Extend our design system with new UI primitives, motions, and reusable patterns

• Implement polished, demo-ready interfaces (states, flows, interaction details)

• Manage staging, QA, and feedback cycles for production-facing projects

Exploratory Work

• Prototype interfaces for new AI interaction models (e.g. Ollama- or Docker-based tools)

• Use AI-augmented coding environments (Cursor, Claude Code, V0) to accelerate prototyping

• Balance speed and quality: quickly test ideas while delivering clean, maintainable code

• Translate experimental prototypes into usable microsite features or internal tools

What We’re Looking For

• 1–3 years experience (or equivalent projects/internships) in design engineering or hybrid roles

• Strong visual instincts paired with systems thinking

• Demonstrated ability to deliver polished, demo-quality UI/UX (attention to states, flow, typography, usability)

• Comfortable with Figma and frontend frameworks (React, Tailwind, Shadcn/ui or similar)

• Familiarity with containerised environments (Docker) and API integrations

• Curiosity about interaction design for AI systems and willingness to work with inference backends like Ollama

• Clear communicator: able to explain decisions, document trade-offs, and work iteratively

Tools & Practices

You’ll work across:

• AI-assisted coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, V0)

• Figma for design and system exploration

• Frontend libraries like shadcn/ui and Tailwind

• Motion.dev /equiv. for animation and system motion

• GitHub, Docker, Notion, and lightweight documentation for collaboration

What Growth Looks Like

Within 6–12 months, you will:

• Expand our design system with net-new components and patterns

• Deliver demo-ready AI prototypes in collaboration with research

• Contribute to design direction through both interface craft and engineering decisions

• Show increasing independence in balancing speed, polish, and technical decisions

What to Include

We’re not just looking for final results. Show us how you think:

• 1–3 projects that demonstrate your design-engineering process (what you explored, how you executed, what you’d do differently)

• A short Loom (optional, max 5 min) walking through a project

• Any examples of demo-quality UI/UX you’ve shipped

Why This Role Matters

Interface is how Maincode’s ideas are experienced. Your work ensures our research shows up in the world with clarity and precision — whether through a microsite, a system component, or an AI-powered prototype.

Hiring Process

We move intentionally and communicate clearly at every step:

1. Portfolio Review – We evaluate taste, process, and clarity

2. Intro Chat – Casual conversation about fit and interest

3. Take-Home Task – A focused, open-ended design–dev challenge (dockerised Ollama prototype + polished UI/UX)

4. Final Chat – With our Design Engineering Lead and Maincode Founder