Head of Product Experience
Job description
ABOUT POOLSIDE
In this decade, the world will create Artificial General Intelligence. There will only be a small number of companies who will achieve this. Their ability to stack advantages and pull ahead will define the winners. These companies will move faster than anyone else. They will attract the world's most capable talent. They will be on the forefront of applied research, engineering, infrastructure and deployment at scale. They will continue to scale their training to larger & more capable models. They will be given the right to raise large amounts of capital along their journey to enable this. They will create powerful economic engines. They will obsess over the success of their users and customers.
Poolside exists to be this company: to build a world where AI will be the engine behind economically valuable work and scientific progress. We believe the fastest way to reach AGI lies in accelerating software development itself, by reshaping the developer experience with agentic systems, coding assistants, and the frontier models that power them. We deploy these systems directly into the development environments of security-conscious enterprises.
ABOUT OUR TEAM
We were founded in the US and have our home there, but our team is distributed across Europe and North America. We get our fix of in-person collaboration (and croissants) in Paris each month for 3 days, always Monday-Wednesday, with an open invitation to stay the whole week. We also do longer off-sites once a year.
Our team is a multidisciplinary blend of research, engineering, and business experts. What unites us is our deep care for what we build together. We’re in a race that requires hard work, intellectual curiosity, and obsession; to balance this intensity, we’ve assembled a team of low ego and kind-hearted individuals who have built the special culture Poolside has. By building collaboratively and with intention, we create a compounding effect that moves the entire company forward towards our mission: reaching AGI through intelligence systems built for software development.
ABOUT THE ROLE
This is a role with three dimensions. You'll lead our design team across product and brand, setting direction and creating the conditions for a small group of senior, autonomous designers to do their best work. You'll drive 0-to-1 product thinking in greenfield, ambiguous spaces, defining what Poolside should build and how it should work. Over time, you'll shape how we show up in the world, helping us cut through the noise of the AI landscape through our public presence and community.
You'll work closely with leadership, Product and partner tightly with our Product Engineering teams.
YOUR MISSION
To define and deliver a product experience worthy of frontier intelligence, and to make sure the world knows about it.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Own product vision in 0-to-1 spaces, defining what Poolside should build and translating ambiguous problems into clear, buildable product direction.
Lead projects focused on research, experimentation, and proof-of-concepts, exploring what's next for developer tools and feeding insight back into Poolside's product direction.
Partner with leadership and engineering to make product decisions that hold up at both the strategic and the granular level.
Shape Poolside's external product presence, including our website and how developers first encounter our work.
Build the foundations of our developer marketing and evangelism function over time, helping us build community and excitement around what we're shipping.
Scale the design team as the company grows, hiring thoughtfully and keeping the bar high.
Lead and grow the design team across product and brand, providing feedback, direction, and the space for senior designers to operate autonomously.
SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
A technical background (computer science or similar) combined with a designer's identity and instincts. You think like an engineer but you're drawn to the craft of product.
Deep experience designing for developer tools specifically, not general consumer or enterprise products.
A track record of building things in your own time. You hack, prototype, and ship side projects because you can't help it.
Comfort writing code. You don't need to be shipping production code, but you need to be able to get your hands dirty.
Strong product intuition and active curiosity about what's moving in the market, particularly in AI and developer tooling.
Experience operating at multiple altitudes: from vision-level conversations with founders and leadership down into the details of a specific flow or interaction.
Proficiency with modern design tools (we use Figma, but specific tooling isn't the point).
Credibility with both designers and engineers. People on both sides of the table trust your judgment.
Experience leading senior, autonomous teams. You know how to set direction without micromanaging.
AI is woven into how you work. You spend significant time every week using AI to build, prototype, and explore, and you have strong opinions about what's good and what isn't.
PROCESS
Intro calls with our Co-Founders
Team Interview(s) with members of the design team
Team fit call with the People team
Final interview
BENEFITS
Fully remote work & flexible hours
37 days/year of vacation & holidays
Health insurance allowance for you & dependents
16 weeks of flexible, full-pay parental leave
Well-being, always-be-learning & home office allowances
Company-provided equipment
Frequent team get togethers
Diverse & inclusive people-first culture