Product Designer (with engineering background)

Join Knapsack to bridge the gap between design and engineering through code, systems thinking, and intelligent tooling. Help build a platform where design systems, AI, and product infrastructure come together to shape the future of software creation.

Knapsack is building the Intelligent Product Engine—a platform that helps teams orchestrate design, code, and content into faster, more consistent digital delivery. Our mission is to move beyond static files and manual workflows, enabling structured, system-aware, AI-augmented product creation.

We work with some of the most forward-thinking design systems and platform teams out there. Our team is small, experienced, and deeply collaborative. We care about clarity, craft, and solving the right problems.

We’re looking for a Product Designer who designs in both Figma and the browser. You’ve made real UX decisions, shaped usable interfaces, and shipped product. You don’t just hand off designs—you bring them to life.

This role lives at the intersection of product design and front-end development. You’ll design flows, components, and product surfaces—and help implement them in production. You’ll collaborate closely with engineers, sometimes writing the code yourself, other times pairing or reviewing implementation.

You thrive in a componentized world, think in systems, and understand how HTML, CSS, and modern frameworks shape design decisions. You bring a structured mindset to complex problems, and you care deeply about how things look and feel.

• Design and build product UI — from early exploration to final implementation
• Work fluidly between Figma and the codebase (HTML/CSS, React, Typescript)
• Translate your own designs into responsive, accessible components
• Identify UX gaps and inconsistencies, and improve them proactively
• Lead UX work on system tools, configuration interfaces, and structured workflows
• Collaborate with engineering and product to shape features and UI patterns
• Contribute to and evolve our internal design system
• Prototype in code when it’s the clearest way to show intent

• 3+ years of product design experience, with work that shows UX thinking and visual craft
• Real experience designing complex digital products—ideally B2B, system-oriented, or technical tools
• Comfortable contributing front-end code (React, TypeScript, HTML/CSS)
• A strong grasp of UX principles: information architecture, usability, accessibility
• Familiarity with design systems, token libraries, and developer-focused tooling
• A portfolio that reflects your product thinking, interaction design, and hands-on implementation
• Ability to work without detailed specs — you know how to explore, refine, and build

• Experience contributing to design systems (tokens, documentation, components)
• Understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG, ARIA)
• Background in developer tools, creative coding, or motion design
• Interest in AI-assisted tooling or systems design

Knapsack is helping teams design and build interfaces in structured, scalable ways. That means the person shaping our product needs to think in both design logic and front-end architecture.

You’ll help define what we build—and then help build it. This is a hands-on role for someone who feels just as comfortable debugging layout as they do wireframing flows. If you’ve ever said, “I design in the browser,” you’ll feel at home here.

Remote-friendly (US-based). Knapsack is a fully remote company headquartered in Portland, OR.

• Competitive salary and equity
• Flexible, remote-first work culture
• Generous vacation policy
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• A thoughtful, ambitious team building something truly original