Lead Designer Jobs in Washington

Persons in these roles are expected to work from our offices in Seattle. On-site requirements vary based on position and team. If you have questions about on-site work arrangements for this role, please ask your recruiter.

Our base salary range is $161,280 - $241,920, and in addition we have generous bonus plans to provide a competitive compensation package.

Who You Are:

Ai2 is looking for a Senior Lead Product Designer to build intuitive, elegant, and impactful user experiences across our growing portfolio of AI products and our website. In this role, you will transform complex AI concepts into visually compelling and intuitive experiences. You will work closely with research and engineering to drive high-impact projects that shape the future of AI products and user interactions.

This is a highly visible role for a bold, visionary designer with a strong visual design sense and deep UX expertise — someone who can drive product design end to end, from framing user problems to delivering high-quality solutions that influence product direction.

If you thrive in a fast-paced environment and can balance strategic vision with hands-on execution, we'd love to hear from you.

The projects you'll be working on are highly complex, on the bleeding edge of AI, and often have no precedent from which to borrow design patterns, so we'll be looking for someone with a demonstrated ability to think creatively and distill complicated research ideas into clear and intuitive user experiences from scratch.

Who We Are:

At Ai2, our design team shapes how people experience, understand, and interact with AI. From exploring open models in the Ai2 Playground to defining new interaction patterns for AI agents and the OlmoEarth platform. We're a small, collaborative team that works closely with researchers, engineers, and program managers to turn complex AI systems into meaningful user experiences. We value curiosity, collaboration, and a shared commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI-driven design and technology.

Your Next Challenge:

Key responsibilities of the role include:

Product & UX Design:

• Own the end-to-end design process for complex, multi-surface AI products, from user research and information architecture to interaction design, prototypes, and visual polish.
• Translate complex technical and research concepts into simple, discoverable, and intuitive user experiences.
• Design interaction flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups using modern tools like Figma.
• Spearhead efforts to evaluate AI-based design tools to standardize and improve design workflows.
• Partner with PMs, engineers, and researchers to align product strategy, user needs, and technical feasibility.
• Work cross-functionally and nimbly to ensure consistent UX across products, demos, and research.

Design Systems & Frameworks:

• Expand Ai2's UX design system, patterns, and components that enable fast iteration and consistent experiences.
• Define and evangelize scalable design frameworks that connect visual and interaction design to Ai2's broader mission.
• Contribute to and evolve a unified design language across projects.

Strategic Influence & Collaboration:

• Drive design alignment across teams, clarifying priorities and ensuring design quality scales with impact.
• Partner with leadership to shape the long-term user experience strategy for Ai2's open models and tools.
• Communicate design rationale and trade-offs effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to define mechanisms that improve design collaboration, velocity, and quality.
• Think creatively to invent and execute innovative solutions that present our research in ways that accelerate and expand impact.

• 12+ years of experience in UX, product, or interaction design for complex digital products.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating modern, user-centered design with measurable product impact.
• Expertise in end-to-end product design, from problem framing through polished UI execution.
• Proficiency in Figma and familiarity with research and prototyping tools.
• Proficiency with AI tools for rapid prototyping and iteration.
• Solid understanding of user-centered design, accessibility, and responsive design best practices.
• Demonstrated ability to simplify complex systems, preferably in technical or AI-driven products.
• Exceptional communication skills and ability to articulate design rationale to diverse audiences.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience designing for developer tools, AI interfaces, or data-heavy applications.
• Familiarity with A/B testing, user analytics, or quantitative validation methods.
• Understanding of business metrics and how design drives adoption and engagement.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time.
• The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.
• The ability to observe details at close range.
• Can work under deadlines.

A Little More About Ai2:

Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world's biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

In addition to Ai2's core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are:

• We are a learning organization – because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly Ai2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal ongoing education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers.
• We value diversity – We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind.
• We value inclusion – We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.
• We emphasize a healthy work/life balance – we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.
• We are collaborative and transparent – we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.
• We are in Seattle – and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.
• We are friendly – chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do.

Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related Know Your Rights compliance poster and the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision by clicking on their corresponding links.

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at recruiting@allenai.org.

Benefits:

• Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, and an employee assistance program.
• Team members are able to enroll in our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.
• Team members are able to enroll in our company's 401k plan.
• Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
• Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Team members will be able to receive annual bonuses and can participate in the long-term incentive plan.

Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship.