Founding Design Engineer

About Aqua

The AI-Native Turnkey Alternative Investment Platform (TAIP)

Tech

ReactJs (Front-end framework) Python backend using Django PostgreSQL (database)

The role

**About Aqua**_Aqua is the operating system for wealth channel alternatives. We are building the platform for independent broker-dealers (IBDs) and independent financial advisors (RIAs) to invest in alternative assets. We are on track to process $5B in new transactions for 2025, with customer logos including some of the largest RIAs/BDs in the nation and asset managers including Blackstone, Apollo, JLL, Blue Owl, etc._ **About the Role**We're hiring our **founding design engineer** to own design across product, brand, and marketing. This is a rare opportunity to define the visual and experiential foundation of a fast-growing fintech company from the ground up.You'll tackle a unique design challenge: making complex alternative investment workflows feel simple and trustworthy for financial advisors managing billions in client assets. Our users expect institutional-grade sophistication wrapped in consumer-grade simplicity. You'll work directly with leadership, product, and engineering to ship both the product interfaces that power transactions and the brand assets that drive sales.**What You’ll Do*** **Own product design and implementation** — Drive the complete design process from concept to production code, translating complex investment workflows into intuitive interfaces built with React, TypeScript, and Tailwind* **Shape Aqua's visual identity** — Establish our brand guidelines and design system, creating a cohesive visual language that signals trust, sophistication, and ease of use* **Create high-impact brand and marketing assets** — Design sales decks, one-pagers, conference materials, and digital content that close deals and maintain consistency across all touchpoints* **Be the voice of design** — Champion design thinking across the organization while establishing the foundations (processes, tools, culture) for the future design team* **Partner with leadership** — Work directly with founders and executives to scale the design function as the company grows**Who You Are*** **3-5+ years designing and building** in startups, with experience as a product designer, design engineer, or frontend engineer with strong design sensibility* **Fluent in both design and code** — You're as comfortable in Figma as you are writing React components and can move seamlessly between designing interfaces and implementing them* Your portfolio shows end-to-end work: polished product interfaces you've coded and brand assets you've designed* **Comfortable with ambiguity** — You thrive in early-stage environments, know when to prioritize speed vs. polish, and don't need detailed specs to produce great work* **Strong communicator** — You can articulate design decisions to both technical and business stakeholders and build consensus across teams* **Excited about ownership** — You want to be the founding design engineer, setting the standard for everything from iconography to interaction patterns to brand voice* Proficiency in modern design tools (Figma, Adobe Creative Suite) and frontend technologies (React, TypeScript, Tailwind/CSS)* Experience in fintech, wealth management, or B2B SaaS is a plus but not required