IDEO
Senior Software Design Lead
San Francisco, CA · Senior · Full-time
No sponsorship$130k-$150kDetected 22 days ago
TypeScriptPythonReactNode.jsGitAWSGCPAzureLLMsAgentic AIFigmaUX ResearchDesign SystemsProduct StrategyRecruitingResearchCommunicationPublic SpeakingWriting
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odds of building a lasting career here
54Sponsors, lottery-bound
Cap-exempt (no lottery)0
Sponsors this role80
Entry-level history0
PERM / green-card track0
Lottery odds (Level III)83
Fits your clock70
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~45% per draw at Level III). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
Lottery odds assume a STEM candidate.
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About the role
- Why is this role important for IDEO's work?
- Their skillset is critical to our business because the work has evolved from designing interfaces to designing systems: how people, software, and AI agents behave together.
- We count on them to understand data models, APIs and agentic infrastructure from first principles, and speak credibly on technical choices with executives and engineering leaders.
Responsibilities
- Build early prototypes with real data, real models and real integrations, so we learn quickly and lower the risk of big bets.
- Advise client executives and engineering teams on tech stack choices, build-vs-buy, evaluating APIs and LLMs, and feasibility.
- Design how agents and systems behave on a human's behalf, including guardrails, failure states and how the system stays legible to both people and machines.
- Raise the craft bar inside IDEO. Create reusable starter kits and toolkits so teams stop building from scratch, and coach designers who prototype in code.
- Learn design from a leading design and innovation firm.
- IDEO's founders designed Apple's first mouse and the first laptop.
- Since then, we've kept people at the center of design through every wave of technological change.
- And you'd help build this practice at IDEO to shape how next generation digital products are designed and built in the era of AI.
- Our purpose of having disproportionate, world-changing impact through design is directly connected to our ability to bring many different perspectives to the table.
Requirements
- Please note that the successful candidate must be based in the United States and have the unrestricted right to work in the US.
Nice to have
- 6-8+ years as a software engineer shipping production software, ideally at growth-stage or established tech companies where speed and scale both mattered.
- You've taken products from concept to launch.
- You think at a systems level.
- AWS, GCP, Azure).
- You turn concepts into working software quickly, using real data and integrations, with quality that holds up beyond vibe coding.
- Client-facing or consulting experience, or taking part in UX research
- Experience with hardware or connected devices (Arduino, IoT)
- A client's CEO wants "an AI agent in the app by Q2." What's your first question for the CEO?
Compensation
- The salary range for this role is $130,000-150,000 USD.
- In addition to base compensation,
Benefits
- Vision, Dental, Healthcare
- Parental Leave, Adoption Assistance, Fertility Assistance, Transgender Medical Assistance, Breastmilk shipment, Back-up/Dependent Care, Pet Insurance
- Flexible Work, Flexible Time Off, Paid Holidays, Annual Education Stipend, Home Office Stipend, Commuter Reimbursement, and Phone & Internet Reimbursement
- At IDEO, we are committed to the work of advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within our organization and in the world.
- IDEO proudly supports flexible work.
Company info
- This applies to our candidates, the people we hire, the clients and customers we serve, and the communities we learn from in our research.
- Unfortunately, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.
Visa & Work Authorization
- Unfortunately, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.
This listing is sourced directly from IDEO's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.