UX Designer

Founded in March 2025, Kilo Code is a remote-first startup building the fastest-growing AI coding agent. We're already generating over 6T tokens per month (top of the leaderboard) with over 500,000 installs. Our open-source, high-output team includes a 15-person engineering org with an average of 15 years of experience. Co-founded by Sid Sijbrandij (co-founder of GitLab and UBoatWorx) and Scott Breitenother (founder of Brooklyn Data Co), we're growing quickly to 35 people.We meet in-person for a focus week every quarter and expect high agency to deliver results in a fast dynamic environment.

As our first Product Designer, you’ll define the end-to-end user experience for our core developer tools — from the VS Code extension to CLI interfaces and beyond.
You will own UX research, product flows, and UI design across platforms to make AI-powered coding feel natural, fast, and trustworthy.
This is a foundational role for a designer who thrives in technical spaces, loves building tools for engineers, and wants to shape how developers interact with AI.

1. Lead user research and translate findings into intuitive product flows, information architecture, and interaction patterns.

2. Partner with Product and Engineering to turn ambiguous ideas into MVPs that ship quickly and iterate rapidly.

3. Design core workflows for our VS Code extension, CLI agent, and future web interfaces — balancing speed, power, and clarity.

4. Build and maintain a lightweight design system that scales with the product and team, empowering the team to work within the system without your direct involvement

5. Prototype AI interactions that feel seamless and assistive rather than intrusive.

6. Collaborate closely with engineers to ensure feasible implementation and pixel-perfect execution.

7. Bring a research-driven yet decisive approach to prioritization — shipping value fast while keeping a cohesive UX vision.

8. Contribute to our open-source ethos by sharing design documentation and feedback transparently.

(This list is not exhaustive; as an early-stage company, you'll shape the role.)

1. 6–10 years of experience in product design (UX + UI), preferably in developer tools or complex technical products.

2. Proven ability to design end-to-end experiences — from research and flows to prototypes and visual systems.

3. Strong technical fluency — comfortable working in code editors, understanding APIs, and collaborating closely with engineers.

4. Experience in rapidly iterating within a high-velocity environment (startups or open-source preferred).

5. Exceptional communication skills to align cross-functional teams in a remote-first setup.

6. A keen eye for detail and a bias toward pragmatism: you know when to craft and when to ship.

7. Portfolio demonstrating technical interfaces, complex flows, and visual polish.

At Kilo Code, you'll have a massive impact, building the future of AI for developers. We value output, autonomy, and collaboration in a senior team tackling ambitious problems. If you're excited to own a product at a rocket-ship startup, apply now.