Staff Product Designer

Scale AI · New York

Designposted 3w ago

Scale is hiring a Senior/Staff Product Designer to lead product design for Scale's Public Sector business unit.

The mission of Scale's Public Sector team is to bring AI-powered decision support directly to government and defense customers — deploying trusted, mission-critical tools in the field, not just building internal software. This role will own the end-to-end design of one of our core mission workflows: planning (synthesizing information for senior decision-makers), operations (surfacing high-signal alerts from complex data streams), or analytical (research and reporting tools) — partnering with product from day one to shape ambiguous, high-stakes problems into deployable customer-facing experiences.

This is a forward-deployed role: you'll work directly with government and defense customers at key points in a project's lifecycle — discovery, feedback sessions, and post-launch — representing design in the room and building the trust needed to get stakeholder buy-in without a manager present.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end design — from ambiguous, undefined requirements through wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and interactive prototypes — for a customer-facing government/defense product experience.
Partner directly with Product as a peer from the earliest stages of a project, not just at handoff.
Work forward-deployed with customers, building direct relationships during key project touch points (discovery, feedback, post-launch) and confidently socializing design decisions with stakeholders.
Design for complex, data-dense workflows: dashboards, mapping interfaces, alerting systems, and analytical reporting tools.
Work directly in code alongside engineers, going beyond static mockups to help build and refine the shipped experience.
Contribute design assets and interaction patterns back to the broader platform, not just the account or project you're staffed on.
Help calibrate and grow the design team by participating in portfolio reviews and interviews as we scale this function.
Navigate high ambiguity — customer requirements are often not clean or fully defined, and you'll need to help define them.
Influence stakeholders cross-functionally and up to leadership level to align on design direction.

Qualifications

10–15 years of experience across a range of design settings and problem types.
Experience owning end-to-end B2B or enterprise product experiences at a senior/staff level.
Comfortable working with high ambiguity and evolving requirements, typical of early-stage government/enterprise engagements.
Experience designing complex workflow UI, dashboards, or data-heavy/mapping interfaces — whether in government/defense, health tech, fintech, or other high-complexity/high-compliance domains.
Strong client-facing presence — confident presenting to and winning over senior stakeholders, whether in person or remote.
Working understanding of front-end development and how to hand off clean, implementable designs; comfort collaborating directly with engineers on code.
Willingness to travel to customer sites at key project milestones.

Nice-to-haves

Experience in a client-facing role where you presented directly to senior stakeholders.
Exposure to AI/ML tools and fluency using AI in your own design workflow.
Experience contributing to a design system or shared interaction patterns across multiple products or teams.
Active security clearance.

Compensation packages at Scale for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position and may be inclusive of several career levels at Scale; it will be determined during the interview process based on work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Scale employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.

Please reference the job posting's subtitle for where this position will be located. For pay transparency purposes, the base salary range for this full-time position in the locations of San Francisco, New York, Seattle is:

$200,000—$290,000 USD

$180,000—$260,000 USD

PLEASE NOTE: Our policy requires a 90-day waiting period before reconsidering candidates for the same role. This allows us to ensure a fair and thorough evaluation of all applicants.

About Us:

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

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