💡 AI learning startup seeks senior (or founding) UX/UI designer that loves food 🥘, loves learning, and will lead design for our early-stage team.

• Part-time or full-time

• NYC-based 🗽 or remote

Hello there! 👋

We’re Parsnip, an AI learning startup founded by Andrew and Dan, two PhDs from Harvard and Stanford. Our mission is to combine science, engineering, and human-centered design to create a better way for people to learn new knowledge and skills — anytime and anywhere — that’s as fun as “leveling up” in a game.

Parsnip’s first product has been called the “Duolingo for cooking” and has 4.9⭐ in the App Store, rave user reviews, and over 80k downloads across iOS and Android. Under the hood, we’re also building a revolutionary new LLM-powered, knowledge graph-based learning system that will teach far more than just cooking, to anyone in the world, in a personalized way.

We’re looking for a product-centric UX/UI designer with a breadth of experience, a love of food, excitement for AI, and empathy for humanity to join us on our journey to both build this mobile app and the novel AI system that underpins it. This designer will work with us to bring the joy of cooking and a love of learning to as many people as possible.

(see full post for some images of our product!)

🛠️ Things you might do:

• Own Parsnip’s design system: Build on our existing design language to deliver a consistent user experience across our mobile app, website, and marketing materials, and in alignment with product and business goals.

  (and/or)

• Conceptualize UX for a substantial AI system: Collaborate with scientists and engineers to conceptualize a web frontend for our knowledge graph-based AI learning platform, working with us in particular on data visualization and interaction design. You’ll also develop an intuitive understanding of how our AI system works and how to make it user-friendly.

• Create, iterate, and ship: Design user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups for our mobile app and/or AI system, iterating quickly and trying many new ideas along the way.

• Collaborate with engineers: Work closely with our fantastic engineering team to ship your designs quickly, participating in project management as needed to help move things forward.

• Understand our users deeply: Talk to our users, conduct user research, and create prototypes to guide product development from a design perspective.

• Contribute beyond just design: While design is your specialty, you also enjoy getting involved in broader company discussions, contributing to product strategy, content, or marketing when necessary.

• Pick up new tools: while you’ll primarily work in Figma, you’re comfortable picking up other tools for animation, prototyping, and other needs outside of design.

• Document and communicate: Clearly articulate design choices, thoughtfully document your work, and communicate effectively both orally and in writing.

😊 Who you might be:

• A design generalist: While you might have a focus in either UX or UI, you can do both and enjoy solving problems from user flows to interface design. You’re passionate about good design and are engaged with the broader design community.

• Experienced in relevant areas: You’ve worked on mobile apps, particularly those with game mechanics or social features. If you’re working on our AI system, you might have experience with data visualization, interaction design & prototyping, or knowledge-based software systems.

• Self-driven & intrinsically motivated: You thrive in an early-stage, fast-paced environment, taking initiative and solving problems independently without needing to be told what to do next. You take pride in doing great work for its own sake, and have developed significant hobbies and interests outside of your primary vocation.

• Growth mindset oriented: You’re a lifelong learner and know that unfamiliar, uncertain situations belie great learning opportunities. You know that “mistakes” are part of the process, and “failure” is just a stepping stone to future success. You’re open to — or even look forward to — receiving feedback as part of a culture that values and encourages this growth.

• Iterative & experimental: You believe people are precious but ideas are not. You're comfortable experimenting, iterating quickly, and discarding ideas that don't work, knowing "done is better than perfect”.

• Comfortable with ambiguity: You embrace challenges as opportunities, optimistically looking for creative solutions rather than emphasizing what isn’t possible. You’re excited to build what benefits humanity in the rapidly shifting landscape of AI and new technologies.

• Empathetic toward your co-workers. You value relationships and care about people beyond just the work they do. You listen empathetically, communicate openly, try to understand others’ point of view, and approach differences of opinion with humility.

• Empathetic toward our users. You try to understand and anticipate user needs, bringing empathy to your design decisions. You're invested in creating a product that users love and that genuinely improves lives.

• Excited about our mission: You’re excited to bring the joy of cooking to as many people as possible, and to build a platform to bring learning out of the classroom and into real life.

🫴 What you can expect from us:

• In-person in New York City, or remote work. For NYC, we spend about 1-2 days a week at a shared office on Bryant Park; we also have many remote team members.

• For part-time roles, at least 20 hours per week. We’ll also consider a full-time, salaried position with benefits for exceptional candidates — as our “founding product designer”.

• A group of smart, passionate, creative, and empathetic team members.

• A competitive salary relative to other early stage startups, depending on experience and ability.

📧 To Apply: please send your resume and portfolio to hello@parsnip.ai, and describe your previous relevant design experience and why you are interested in this position in the email. We’re looking forward to meeting you!