Design Engineering for startups

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A senior design engineer designs your product straight in code. No Figma handoff, no rebuild, no QA rounds. Just working UI in your repo.

The usual way
MockupHandoffRebuildDesign QAFix rounds
A designer, a developer and a PM in between
Design engineering
BriefLive code
One person, zero handoffs

No handoff

The person who designs the screen builds it. Nothing gets lost between a file and the code.

No babysitting

Designers stop playing PM and QA for developers. What was designed is what ships.

One person, not a team

A design engineer covers the designer, the frontend developer and the review loop between them.

The role

A designer who writes production code. They make the calls on layout, type and motion, then build the result in React and Next.js themselves.

AI agents now do the repetitive work, so one senior person covers what used to take a designer, a frontend developer and the handoff between them. You get a working interface in your repo, not a file to translate.

Same file, no handoff.

Selected work

Design engineering

  • Web and mobile apps
  • Marketing sites
  • Dashboards and SaaS
  • Design systems
  • Motion and interaction
  • Brand identity

What's included: From brief to merged pull request.

  • Interface design: Product screens, flows and marketing pages, designed in the browser with every state covered.
  • Design systems: Tokens, components and usage rules your team can extend without a designer in the room.
  • Frontend build: React, Next.js and TypeScript components, shipped to your repo as reviewed pull requests.
  • Motion and interaction: Micro-interactions and page transitions that make the product feel finished.
  • Accessibility: Contrast, focus states and keyboard paths built in, not bolted on before launch.
  • Figma when it helps: Brand explorations and stakeholder decks still get a file. It just isn't the deliverable.

Design engineerDesigner + developer
PeopleDesign engineerOne seniorDesigner + developerDesigner, developer, PM
HandoffsDesign engineerNoneDesigner + developerAt every step
You reviewDesign engineerA live preview linkDesigner + developerA static mockup
Design QADesign engineerBuilt inDesigner + developerExtra rounds
CostDesign engineer$1,690 / month, flatDesigner + developerTwo or three salaries
FAQ

All questions

A designer who writes production code. They decide how the interface looks and behaves, then build it in React and Next.js themselves, so there is no handoff.