Digital Designer

The RoleKaizen is entering its most visible moment. We're building a new AI harness that will allow us to rapidly scale against government needs, and our platforms are slated to serve hundreds of millions of Americans. Our software is world-class, and we need a phenomenal digital designer to help our brand 're looking for someone who can build stunning landing pages that make agency stakeholders lean forward, craft motion and illustration work that brings government software to life, and establish a visual identity that reflects where we're going, not where we've been. This isn't a production role, and it isn't executing someone else's vision. It's setting how the world sees Kaizen, and shipping that work firsthand.What You'll DoDesign and ship landing pages, campaign sites, and entry points for agency platforms that convert both agency stakeholders and mission-driven talent. This is an unbelievably serious responsibility — your work will be the first impression between a constituent and the government meant to serve them, and it will shape whether they trust it enough to continue.Build the constituent-facing visual system (the typographic voice, the motion language, the illustration style), so that every agency application we ship carries an unmistakable Kaizen signature, and a person moving between two Kaizen-built services feels the same Kaizen's own web presence including the marketing site, launch moments, flyers, and campaign work that convince agency stakeholders and mission-driven talent that we're the team to bet on.Ship your own work in code. You won't be handing files to an engineer and hoping for the bestUse AI-native creative tools as real leverage. You'll produce at a volume and quality that wouldn't otherwise be possible at our size.Partner directly with Sales and BD on federal pitch materials, demo environments, and proposal assets where stunning visual quality is part of the close.Work closely with our Design Lead, CEO, and engineering teams to make sure the product and brand feel like they came from the same mind. You'll share work early, ship often, and treat feedback as signal.What You'll BringA portfolio with real range: web design work that's both beautiful and functional, motion with craft and intention, illustration that doesn't read as stockA record of shipping independently, start to finish. You build with tools like Claude Code against your most ambitious idea instead of scoping down to what you can hand offStrong command of web-native design, including how layouts, typography, and interactions actually behave in a browser, and how to design for thatFluency with motion and animation tools (After Effects, Rive, Lottie, Jitter, or equivalent), used to add clarity rather than noiseFluency with AI creative tools such as Midjourney, Runway, or Firefly, or whatever's currently best, used as genuine creative leverageExperience building or significantly evolving a brand system from first principles, and the range to take a set of values and a roadmap and come back with something that surprises peopleStrong Candidates May Also...Have designed for B2G, B2B, or mission-driven organizations where credibility carries as much weight as aestheticsHave worked against USWDS or a comparable government design standard, and have opinions about itHave a point of view on what great government-facing design looks like, and why so little of it existsDon't Apply If...You don't believe deeply in our mission to scale design across all government agencies. We want designers focused on mission, purpose, and quality.You need a detailed brief and finished brand guidelines before you can produce. We're building both, and you're part of how we get thereYou treat AI tools as a threat to craft rather than a multiplier of it. This team is AI-native by default.Your work skews towards visual polish in isolation. We need design that performs, not just design that looks good in a case studyYou'd rather iterate inside a system than build one from want to hand off to someone else when it's time to actually ship. The people using what Kaizen builds are farmers applying for loans, service members finding housing, and immigrants navigating case management. The quality of what you make here is not abstract.What Kaizen OffersHealth & Insurance100% coverage across the board: medical through Oxford/United (Gold and Platinum PPO plans), dental through Guardian PPO, and vision through Beam — all fully covered for employees, with 100% coverage for dependents.$100,000 in fully paid life insurance. FSA and Dependent Care FSA.One Medical membership, on us — same-day primary care, 24/7 virtual visits, and offices all over the city.Fertility and family-building support through Carrot.401(k) through Guideline, with a 2% company & Time Off16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birthing parents. 10 weeks fully paid for non-birthing parents.Unlimited PTO, with a two-week minimum (we mean it when we say take time off!)Closed for all federal holidays.Company-wide winter break the week of Christmas.Company offsites throughout the year.Office & Remote SetupUp to $750 one-time home office or desk setup stipend for NYC-based employees. $500 for remote employees.$50/month commuter benefit (company contribution).Expensed lunch while in the office.Company-provided laptop of your choice.WellnessFully covered gym membership at Grindhouse — right across the street from our office at 47 W 17th St (and in Williamsburg). A $225/month value, on us. For remote employees, $100/month dedicated to gym or physical fitness reimbursement.Stipends$100/month utility stipend.$500/year professional development.$250/year recreation.$300/quarter pet care stipend.