Designer / Design Engineer

Manicule is trying to solve a problem most people have given up on: getting AI to write well.

Everyone can get a model to produce words, but it feels so empty. Almost no one can get it to produce writing with a point of view, a logically sound structure, and a unique tone.

We want to solve these problems at scale. That means turning the judgment of strong writers into something repeatable that an AI can actually run on. Part of the work is engineering: prompts, evals, the harness around them. Part of it is editorial taste. Most of the work is experimentation, because nobody has the answers yet, and the frontier moves every few weeks.

We also think the audience for writing is changing. More and more, what we produce is read by agents as much as by people, and we're already working on catering to them.

We're small, we hire rarely, and people stay. If the idea of teaching a machine to write the way you'd want to read excites you more than it worries you, we should talk.

We’re hiring a designer to own product and web design at Manicule. We build software and AI workflows that help technical companies create documentation and content.

You’ll work directly with the founders, turning complex workflows into clear interfaces and shaping how we present the product on the web. This role spans early exploration, interaction design, visual polish, and working with engineers to get the details right.

• Product flows, dashboards, and interfaces for managing AI-powered work.
• Our website, landing pages, and product launches.
• A consistent visual language across the product and website.
• Prototypes and implementation reviews to take designs through to shipping.

• Experience working with SF startups or technical companies, especially developer tools, AI products, or B2B software.
• A portfolio showing strong product design and web design.
• Good judgment around typography, layout, interaction, and information hierarchy.
• Comfort working from an evolving brief, asking useful questions, and moving quickly with a small team.
• Clear communication and the ability to own work independently in a remote environment.

If you also build interfaces in React, Next.js, or CSS, we’d love to see that work. Frontend implementation experience is a strong plus.

Apply through YC with your portfolio, availability, and a short introduction. Include one product project and one website you’re proud of, with a brief explanation of your role and what shipped.

Stack: TypeScript top to bottom. Next.js 16 + React 19 on the front, Hono + Postgres + Drizzle on the back, all on Vercel. Vercel AI SDK + Claude, durable agent workflows running in sandboxes, and our own eval harness for measuring whether the writing is actually any good. Bun, Turborepo, Biome, Vitest, Playwright. Composio wires the agents into GitHub, Slack, Linear, X, and more.