Founding Design Lead

Lanai Software is at the forefront of the GenAI revolution, empowering humans to achieve the extraordinary in the age of AI. Lanai's AI platform empowers large organizations and employees to discover, protect, and accelerate AI adoption, fostering innovation and unlocking unprecedented productivity. Backed by top investors, we're creating a world where everyone can confidently leverage GenAI at work.

As the most intuitive solution for safely accelerating AI at work, we're transforming how large and scaling enterprises build, sell, serve, and grow for generations to come. Unlike tools that merely police AI use, Lanai's platform provides organizations with a first-of-its-kind solution for:

1. Enabling GenAI fluency

2. Illuminating use cases and insights

3. Safeguarding GenAI use

4. Revealing true business value

At Lanai, we're not just building software; we're crafting a culture of excellence and innovation. Our values shape our work:

• Curiosity: We continuously learn, question, and share knowledge.

• Community: We embrace diversity and unite in purpose.

• Commitment: We maintain high standards and follow through on our promises.

• Clarity: We communicate openly and make decisions efficiently.

With significant funding from enterprise tech investors like Juxtapose, Lux Capital, F7, and BAG Ventures  and a very early prototype that large enterprises are co-creating, we’re looking for our Founding Design Lead to collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including CEO, CPO (Hiring Manager), Engineering, as well as customers (F1000 employers and employees) to ensure design plays a central role in achieving business objectives and delivering customer value. Design is a critical part of our ability to win and you will be our founding, strategic design leader who drives the vision, strategy, and execution of exceptional user experience for employees and technical buyers at large enterprises.

What our partners -  F2000 CIOs, CDAIOs, CISOs - reactions to Lanai’s current demo is:

• Lanai is a relief valve.  Today: we are using hopes and prayers for observability and security.  We are giving loose high level guidance (we’re in a quiet period - no one should use LLM to do anything financial); they did and we found out too late.  Lanai gives us observability, control, and audit functions.

• Lanai is a great enabler.  We want employees to use generative AI, but we’re afraid that employees will use it in the wrong way and there are no good, easy AI tools to help us figure out: How are people using it today? If they are asking common questions, can we train on that? If they’re making a common mistake, can we give them a gentle nudge in the right direction?

• Lanai offers a software solution instead of high level training, certification and awareness building efforts  to ensure people get access to GenAI and LLMs in a cost-effective, safe, and efficient manner. The platform helps companies manage the usage and costs associated with these technologies, while providing guardrails to ensure compliance and trust

As the Founding Design Lead, you will be a core part of the founding team. You’ll have the opportunity to shape the product’s design language, systems, and user experience from scratch. This is a role for a highly entrepreneurial designer who can balance creativity with practical execution and thrives in dynamic, startup environments.

• Autonomously lead the entire UX design process autonomously from concept to execution, crafting intuitive, visually compelling user and enterprise experiences

• Collaborate closely with the founding team to translate Lanai’s aspirations to be a trusted partner to employers and employees in F1000 companies in all things Generative AI

• Bring a 0-1 mindset, spearheading the creation of a product from its earliest stage, with the ability to quickly iterate with customers and improve based on feedback.

• Develop and implement design systems that are scalable and adaptable to future product evolution.

• Be a thought leader in UX best practices, incorporating AI and B2B experience where relevant to create a cutting-edge and intuitive user experience

• 8+ years of experience in UX/UI design skills across various platforms and products

• Proven experience with 0-1 startup as well as in bigger enterprise tech products having built B2B and B2C products from the ground up and solid inclination towards GenAI/ML

• Robust portfolio of work that demonstrates expertise owning the entire design lifecycle: user research, product design, user interaction, customer iteration

• Comfort with ambiguity, experimentation, and rapid iteration and entrepreneurial spirit with deep desire to make a significant impact in dynamic startup environment

• Solid communication skills and leadership skills, to articulate design concepts and strategies to cross-functional teams, customers and early career designers

• Curiosity & Empathy: A strong sense of curiosity, empathy, and the ability to create intuitive user experiences that resonate with users

• Bachelor's degree in design, Human Computer Interaction or a related field

• Founding equity options

• Health, dental, and vision insurance

• 401(k)

• 15+ paid company holidays and 30 days PTO per year

• Your choice of tech!

• Commuter benefits

• Team building events

Lanai is based in Palo Alto and we co-create in our office, together, most of the time. We have a regular in-office cadence for team connection and brainstorming sessions, with the flexibility for remote work the rest of the time. We use the best collaboration tools, schedule regular off-sites, and plan for team bonding experiences.

We're committed to providing equal treatment and opportunity to all applicants throughout the hiring process and their tenure at Lanai. We don't discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other legally protected status.

Note: Research shows that men often apply for jobs when they meet only about 60% of the qualifications, while women and other marginalized groups tend to hesitate unless they meet all criteria. If you don't match 100% of the job qualifications but believe you'd be a great fit, we strongly encourage you to apply!