Senior Product Designer

Who Are We?

Government technology has failed the public for decades, and Americans have been conditioned to expect websites from the 90s for essential public services.

Kaizen exists to strengthen trust in American public services by building technology that residents and public servants are proud to use. We partner with local, state, and federal agencies to replace legacy systems with modern, AI-native software that is worthy of the people they serve. We started in outdoor recreation, and now we're building toward something much larger — the software layer that powers how Americans access any government service.

Our platform already reaches 40 million residents across 50+ agencies in 17 states.

Founded in 2022 and based in New York City, Kaizen has raised $35 million from NEA, a16z, Accel, 776, and Carpenter Capital. We're builders, designers, and operators who believe that beautifully designed software shouldn’t be a luxury in government. It’s how you earn trust back.

Location

This is a hybrid role based out of our New York City HQ. Candidates must reside in New York or be able to commute to New York City to work out of our office at least three times a week (Tuesdays - Thursdays).

The Role

As the fourth design hire at Kaizen, you’ll report to the Design Lead and play a foundational role in crafting exceptional user experiences for government staff and members of the public. This high-agency opportunity will allow you to impact every aspect of design at the company: from scoping and shipping products with our engineers, to building innovative prototypes for the sales team, to creating marketing assets as we evolve our brand. In true startup fashion, you’ll wear many hats, including partnering closely with our implementation team on customer deployments and helping to define our product roadmap strategically.

What You’ll Do

• Lead design work end-to-end, including:

  • Driving research and discovery sessions with our customers

  • Writing clear, well-scoped product requirement documents

  • Designing and iterating upon high-fidelity flows and prototypes

  • Collaborating side-by-side with our wonderful engineering team to bring the work to life

  • Contributing to Trailmix, our internal design system

• Partner with our implementation team on critical customer deployments by providing hands-on project management, product strategy, and customer communications

• Work with the business development team to define the future of the product with robust prototyping for RFP responses and demos

• Work with the leadership team to create marketing assets for socials, one-pagers for conferences, and other branded materials

What You’ll Bring

• 4-6 years of experience in product design, preferably in a high-growth startup or agency environment

• Experience designing administrative tooling

• Experience designing scalable solutions for SaaS products for desktop and mobile

• Experience in client services and excitement to work directly with customers

• Proficiency in Figma for both design and prototyping

• Workflows powered with AI tooling (ChatGPT, Figma Make, Lovable, etc.)

Strong Candidates May Also Bring...

• Experience with AI coding tools like Cursor to make your own contributions to the codebase

What Kaizen Offers

• Comprehensive medical through Oxford/United - Gold and Platinum PPO plans, with 85% of premiums covered on the Platinum plan and a $0 employee premium option. Dental through Guardian PPO and vision through Beam, with 99% of employee premiums covered and 50% for dependents.

• $100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA. 401(k) access through Guideline.

• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents.

• Unlimited PTO & closed for all federal holidays.

• Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.

• One-time home office or desk setup stipend up to $750.

• $50/month commuter benefit.

• $100/month for wellness or productivity - your call on how you use it!

• $500/year for professional development.

• $250/year for recreation.

• Company-provided laptop.

• Expensed lunch while in the office.

Kaizen is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. If you need an accommodation during the interview process, email us at careers@kaizenlabs.co.

Why Now

The government technology modernization wave is happening. Agencies are being pushed to change, and they need partners who can move fast and build well.

We have the contracts. We have the agency relationships. We have the platform. We need the engineers.

If you want to spend the next few years shipping software that actually matters — not another B2B SaaS dashboard, not an internal tool nobody uses — and you want to do it at a company moving aggressively into one of the most consequential markets in tech, this is the role.

Don't Apply If...

You need a detailed ticket to know what to build next. You think AI tools are a crutch. You want to own one layer of the stack and never leave it. You're more comfortable in a 500-person organization than a small team where everyone's accountable. You need the problem fully defined before you start moving. Or if you're looking for low-stakes work — because what we build touches real people in real moments that matter: accessing benefits, families navigating public services, constituents interacting with their government at its most critical touchpoints. This work is serious. The people we serve deserve serious teams.