Founding Product Designer

🚀 Founding Product Designer — Build the Design Foundation at Obviant (Defense + Data AI)

📍 Arlington, VA (Hybrid — 3+ days onsite)

💰 $160K–$225K base + competitive equity

🛂 U.S. Citizenship required (security clearance eligible)

✨ About the Role

Obviant is hiring its first Founding Product Designer to own the end-to-end user experience and define the design foundation of a fast-growing, venture-backed defense + data intelligence startup.

This is a rare opportunity to become the first design hire at a company growing 25x YoY, backed by top national security VCs, and preparing for a Series A.

You’ll have massive ownership, real leadership influence, and direct impact on a product used by defense tech firms, investors, and U.S. government teams.

🛠 What You’ll Do

As the Founding Product Designer, you will

• Own the entire product design function from the ground up
• Define the design vision, strategy, and processes as the first dedicated designer
• Lead the full lifecycle: research → wireframes → high-fidelity UI → developer handoff
• Translate complex defense + data workflows into clean, enterprise-grade UX
• Partner closely with engineering, product, leadership, and customers
• Build and scale a design system that will power the company long-term
• Work directly with customers to solve high-impact, real-world problems

✅ Must-Have Requirements

We’re looking for someone who brings strong product ownership and enterprise design experience:

• 3+ years designing and shipping B2B SaaS products
• Experience as a dedicated product designer owning a product long-term
• Background at a company known for high-quality software design
• Portfolio showing end-to-end design process for shipped products
• Proven experience building design systems from scratch
• High ownership, accountability, and ambition to grow into a design leadership role
• U.S. Citizen & eligible for a security clearance (required for DoD work)

⭐ Nice-to-Have (Big Plus)

• Experience with data-heavy products (finance, analytics, biotech, enterprise dashboards)
• Experience in regulated or complex domains (defense, fintech, healthcare, govtech)
• Prior experience as a first or early designer at a startup

🧰 Tech Stack

• Figma
• Adobe Creative Suite

🏢 About Obviant

Obviant is building an AI-powered data intelligence platform that’s transforming how the U.S. defense ecosystem understands acquisition, contracting, and budgeting.

• Backed by Shield Capital and top national security investors
• Grew 25x revenue last year
• Customers include defense startups, primes, investors, and government agencies
• Team of 15, hiring fast ahead of Series A