Staff Design Engineer (AI Product)

TL;DR

Staff Design Engineer (AI Product): Designing and prototyping the user experience for Thunderbolt, an open-source AI client for organizations, with an accent on AI-powered interaction patterns and enterprise-grade usability. Focus on translating ambiguous product ideas into functional prototypes, building reusable UI components, and ensuring trust and transparency in AI workflows.

Location: Remote (Canada). Must reside in and have permanent work authorization for Canada. No visa sponsorship provided.

Salary: $155,000 - $175,000 CAD

Company

hirify.global is the nonprofit-owned company behind Thunderbird, building privacy-respecting communication and productivity tools.

What you will do

• Build functional prototypes and product experiments directly in the Thunderbolt codebase.
• Define interaction patterns for AI-powered chat, search, research, workflow automation, and knowledge retrieval.
• Partner with product, design, and engineering teams to validate and refine the product direction.
• Develop reusable components and design-system elements to create leverage for the broader team.
• Ensure product experiences meet enterprise needs regarding data sensitivity, security, and auditability.
• Contribute production-quality frontend code and improve overall UX polish and accessibility.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in design engineering, frontend engineering, UX engineering, or product design.
• Strong proficiency in modern JavaScript or TypeScript and component-based frameworks.
• Proven experience designing and building AI-enabled product experiences (e.g., chat, agents, automation).
• Ability to translate ambiguous product concepts into usable workflows and prototypes.
• Must reside in and have permanent work authorization for Canada.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills for working across time zones.

Nice to have

• Experience with enterprise software, developer tools, or productivity tools.
• Contributions to design systems or shared frontend architecture.
• Familiarity with user research, usability testing, and rapid experimentation.
• Experience working in open-source or highly collaborative engineering environments.

Culture & Benefits

• Fully remote work with schedule flexibility and a monthly remote work stipend.
• Annual bonus program and professional development stipend with access to Coursera.
• Comprehensive health, dental, vision, and disability insurance.
• 24 days PTO, 9 wellbeing days, and year-end company shutdown.
• RRSP contributions and paid parental leave.
• Company-provided laptop and attendance at industry conferences.