Product Designer

About the company

Arena Physica is working to speed up advances in hardware that can meaningfully improve human progress. The company name draws from Theodore Roosevelt’s Citizenship in a Republic speech and reflects a culture of total commitment, bold ambition, and willingness to take risks in pursuit of something worthwhile.

The team includes about 50 people with strengths across AI engineering and applied physics, along with substantial experience delivering enterprise solutions. Headquartered in New York City, the company also has a presence in San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is supported by roughly $90M in backing from Initialized, Founders Fund, Goldcrest Capital, Fifth Down Capital, and Shield Capital.

Arena Physica is building what it calls electromagnetic superintelligence. Its AI platform, Atlas, uses physics-aware intelligence to verify, troubleshoot, and improve hardware throughout the full lifecycle. The platform is already used by leading hardware organizations such as AMD, Anduril, and Bausch & Lomb across research and development, integration testing, assembly, and field repair.

About the role

As a Product Designer, you will define the product experience, visual direction, and interaction patterns that shape how users work with Atlas. You will connect frontier AI capabilities with the people using them and with the physical settings where the product is deployed. The goal is to make advanced systems feel clear, usable, and credible.

This position is best suited to a designer who has already delivered real AI-centered products. You should understand how language models behave, where they can fail, and how to create interfaces that help users trust the product and rely on it in day-to-day work. The environment is fast-moving, execution-focused, and high standard.

What you will do

• Turn strong prototypes and early concepts into shipped product experiences across the Atlas platform.
• Build a deep understanding of engineers’ workflows, frustrations, and practical needs, and use that insight to advocate for them.
• Work closely with product and design teammates to shape both long-term direction and near-term priorities.
• Partner with engineers and scientists to translate new AI methods into tools and experiences that hardware teams can use at scale.
• Create interaction models for complex AI-driven workflows that are easy to understand and inspire confidence.
• Contribute to the evolution of the design language and extend the design system as the product suite expands.
• Improve the quality bar for motion, animation, and visual polish.
• Travel within the U.S. and internationally for about 10–15% of the time.
• Work from Arena’s New York City headquarters when not traveling.

Requirements

• At least 6 years of product design experience in an agency, startup, top-tier technology company, or similarly demanding environment, with strong interaction and visual design ability.
• Proven experience shipping substantial digital products that solve real problems, not only presenting concepts or mockups.
• Strong command of Figma and practical experience designing with code, with the ability to move between both workflows comfortably.
• Ability to simplify complicated systems into intuitive experiences while keeping design systems and brand expression consistent.
• Comfort working in unclear problem spaces and refining solutions through user research and iteration.
• High personal standards, strong ownership, and the discipline to maintain quality without needing reminders.
• Clear communication skills and a collaborative approach that works well with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Preferred: experience creating AI- or LLM-powered products for technical audiences such as engineers, researchers, analysts, or operators, with a strong sense of how these systems behave and how to make them trustworthy.
• Preferred: familiarity with hardware or electrical engineering, plus interest in building AI for the physical world where evidence, accuracy, and engineering judgment matter.

Benefits and perks

• The company covers 100% of monthly premiums for Aetna medical, vision, and dental insurance for employees and their dependents.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Unlimited paid time off.
• Daily lunch from local restaurants through Sharebite.
• Relocation assistance is available.
• Competitive equity and benefits package in addition to base salary.

Additional information

The base salary range for this role is $185,000 to $225,000 per year. Actual compensation may differ based on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

This is an in-person role at the company’s New York City headquarters when you are not traveling.

The role includes domestic and international travel amounting to around 10–15% of working time.

Join a team that values bold thinking, fast execution, and craftsmanship in building AI tools for the physical world.