Senior AI Design & Engineering Process Lead

Lifted, an Upwork Company, is seeking a Senior AI Design & Engineering Process Lead who can navigate both design and engineering with a focus on AI tools. The role involves redefining design workflows, maintaining design systems, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure high-quality prototypes and production code.

Responsibilities:

• Redesign the design workflow Help us define where design fits in a process where PMs create clickable prototypes with AI tools before handoff. Establish the new role of design as quality controller, system thinker, and refinement layer
• Build and maintain the design system Ensure our component library, tokens, and patterns are robust enough that AI-generated prototypes get closer to production quality from the start
• QA prototype fidelity Review AI-generated and PM-built prototypes, translate them into production-ready Figma files, and establish quality gates for engineering handoff
• Introduce AI-native design tooling Bring your experience with AI design tools into our workflow. Show the team what's possible and what's practical. Train PMs on how to prompt better prototypes
• Define standards and templates Create reusable prompt templates, prototype review checklists, and design-to-Figma translation workflows that scale across the team
• Collaborate across Product, Solutions, and Engineering Work closely with PMs building prototypes, engineers shipping code from those prototypes, and stakeholders reviewing the output
• Review and improve AI-generated code quality Evaluate the frontend code that AI tools produce from prototypes. Identify patterns where AI output needs human refinement, and help engineers establish review standards for AI-assisted PRs
• Help define AI-assisted engineering workflows Bring hands-on experience with Cursor, Copilot, and Claude/Junie into our engineering process. Help the team build prompt templates, testing patterns, and code review standards for AI-generated code
• Bridge prototype to production Ensure what gets built matches what was validated. You understand both the Figma file and the React component and can spot when they diverge

Requirements:

• 5+ years of product design experience, with at least 1–2 years actively using AI tools in your design workflow (not just experimenting - actually shipping with them)
• Working knowledge of frontend engineering - You can read and evaluate React/TypeScript code, understand component architecture, and have an informed opinion on whether AI-generated code is production-ready. You don't need to be a full-time engineer, but you need to be dangerous
• Hands-on experience with AI tools across design and code - Lovable, v0, Bolt for prototyping. Cursor, Copilot, or Claude for code. You've used both sides, not just one
• Strong design systems background - You've built or maintained a component library at scale
• Comfort with ambiguity - This role is about defining a new process, not following an existing one. You need to be opinionated and adaptable
• Experience in B2B SaaS or platform products - Understanding complex, multi-stakeholder workflows is important. HR tech, fintech, or compliance-heavy domains are a plus
• Excellent communication skills - You'll be working with PMs, engineers, and leadership. You need to articulate design decisions clearly and push back when needed
• Experience with Figma Dev Mode and design-to-code workflows
• Ability to ship small frontend fixes or components yourself - not just review them
• Experience setting up AI-powered testing or QA pipelines
• Experience training or mentoring teams on AI tooling adoption (design or engineering)
• Background in contingent workforce, HR tech, or compliance platforms