Lead UX/UI Engineer

About Us Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology-led companies that are bringing revolutionary advancements to market in three distinct practice areas: healthcare, cyber, and national security. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our Nation’s most pressing problems. About the Role:   We are seeking a  Lead UX/UI Engineer  to lead the design and front-end experience of products across Red Cell and its portfolio companies. This is a highly hands-on role for someone who excels at translating complex ideas into intuitive, beautiful, and scalable digital experiences while also bringing those experiences to life through modern front-end development.   This is not a traditional design role. You'll operate at the intersection of product design, engineering, and AI – partnering closely with founders, product leaders, and engineers to rapidly prototype, build, and ship products from concept to production. You'll be expected to move fluidly between user research, interaction design, high-fidelity UI, front-end implementation, and AI-assisted development.   Product experience is a core operating capability at Red Cell. You'll help shape products, companies, and brands from inception through growth by creating experiences that are both technically sound and thoughtfully designed.   This role will also dedicate up to 25% of time supporting Red Cell's Marketing, Brand, and Communications team through web development and implementation for Red Cell Partners and its incubation companies' digital presence.   At Red Cell, we firmly believe that a shared design system that bridges traditional brand guidelines and component libraries drives meaningful value. This role will partner closely with marketing and design to seamlessly integrate brand (visual and story telling) with product usability and experience.   This is a remote role with travel expected for bi-annual All Hands and occasional team meetings (~10% or less).   What You Will Do:   Partner closely with founders, product managers, engineers, and leadership to transform ambiguous problem spaces into intuitive product experiences.  Design and build modern user interfaces across web, mobile, AI agents, wearables, and emerging interaction modalities.   Create rapid prototypes and proof-of-concepts that validate ideas and accelerate product development.  Own the end-to-end UX/UI process – from discovery and wireframes through polished interfaces and production-ready implementation.  Develop production frontend applications using modern technologies such as React, TypeScript, and Tailwind Apply best practices in frontend engineering, including component composition, proper hooks usage, state management, memoization, and performance optimization Translate Figma designs into performant, accessible, and scalable user interfaces.   Build and maintain reusable component libraries, design systems, and front-end patterns that enable consistency across products.  Collaborate closely with engineering teams to ensure design quality is preserved throughout implementation (such as via Storybook or equivalent).  Leverage AI-powered design and development tools to accelerate workflows, prototype faster, and improve product experiences.   Create "North Star" concepts and future-state product visions that help guide long-term strategy.   Establish lightweight UX standards, interaction patterns, and engineering best practices that enable teams to move quickly without sacrificing quality.   Work closely with Marketing to build and maintain websites while incorporating consistent branding and design systems across Red Cell and portfolio companies.  Balance speed, usability, scalability, and technical feasibility in fast-moving startup environments.   What We're Looking For:   8–12+ years of experience designing and building digital products, including significant experience in front-end engineering and UX/UI design.  Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Design, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).  Deep expertise building production frontend applications with React (or related web frameworks), TypeScript, and Tailwind Advanced Figma skills, including component libraries, Auto Layout, design systems, prototyping, variables, and design tokens.  Experience translating design systems into scalable, reusable front-end component libraries.  Strong understanding of responsive design, accessibility standards, and performance optimization.   Experience designing and shipping products from early-stage concepts through production and scale.   Familiarity with AI-native product experiences, LLM-powered applications, and AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor, Codex, and Claude Code. Strong understanding of user-centered design principles, interaction design, information architecture, and usability best practices.   Ability to communicate effectively across design, engineering, and executive stakeholders.   Experience thriving in startup or high-growth environments where priorities evolve quickly.   You Might Thrive in This Role If You:   Enjoy designing experiences and building them yourself.  Think equally like a designer and an engineer.   Love turning ambiguous ideas into polished products.   Are energized by AI and constantly experiment with new tools to improve your workflow.   Care deeply about craftsmanship, usability, and performance.   Can move from whiteboard sketches to production-ready code with minimal handoff.   Are comfortable influencing product direction through prototypes and working sessions rather than lengthy documentation.   Think in systems and enjoy creating reusable patterns that scale across multiple produ