Senior Product Design Engineer

Hi, we're DuckDuckGo, the online protection company and remote-first team of 300+ on a mission to raise the standard of trust online. Founded in 2008 and profitable since 2014, annual revenue now exceeds $100m USD and millions use our browser on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, our search engine, and the latest — Privacy Pro. Our culture of trust, inclusivity, and empowered project management underpins everything we do, where each team member takes full ownership of their projects, from scoping and execution to postmortem. If you're seeking end-to-end ownership of your work — you've come to the right place!

Working on the Design Functional Team, this role is design-first, leveraging your product design expertise and obsession with craft to help us maintain quality across our products, including Duck.ai, native apps, search and related projects.

Here’s an example of a recent project the Product Design Engineer team worked on:

1. https://spreadprivacy.com/ai-feature-upgrade/

2. https://spreadprivacy.com/ai-chat/

At DuckDuckGo, Design owns quality end to end, and your engineering skills close the gap between the design that's intended and the product that ships. You're fluent enough in code to prototype, spec precisely, and partner with engineers as a peer, working directly in the codebase to make sure execution clears the bar you set. As our 2nd Design Engineer, you'll have real leadership opportunities to shape the role and discipline!

As a Senior Product Design Engineer, you'll collaborate across levels to solve problems in our current products and pioneer new ones as we build the privacy layer for the Internet. You'll autonomously lead high-impact projects at scale from ideation to execution with a voice in product design decisions large and small.

About You

1. 7+ years in product design roles, including 2+ years senior-level at significant global consumer brands

2. Pushes creative limits on hard design problems, delivering delight, craft, and exceptional quality

3. Communicates visual and interaction recommendations through high-quality mockups, rationale, prototypes, and specific motion variables

4. Partners with engineers as a peer — reasoning about decisions in PR reviews, contributing code where it raises design quality

5. Prototypes in code to a production standard, with an understanding of semantic markup and accessibility, leveraging but not relying on AI

6. Experience structuring a design system beyond component inventory: token layering, primitive vs. semantic naming, design-to-code parity

7. Proficient in research and experimentation, using both qualitative and quantitative data, comfortable instrumenting your own work

8. Experience participating in multiple areas of the product process including prioritization, strategy, and user testing

9. Takes initiative - generates ideas and carries them forward with urgency and discretion, while working openly

10. Experience defining requirements and building tools that accelerate design and engineering workflows while retaining design system quality and consistency

$178,500 USD annually and stock options. Compensation is identical within professional levels, regardless of geographic location or team. Compensation for each professional level is transparent across the organization.

Eligibility for company-sponsored health benefits is limited to team members based in the United States. This program does not extend to team members located in other countries, such as Canada or the UK.

Our Team Member Support Guide explains how we prioritize your wellbeing including paid parental leave, office setup, and co-working allowances.

Hiring works best when it's a two-way street. Learn how we help you get to know DuckDuckGo, envision your future role here, and find out more about how we hire.

DuckDuckGo provides equal work opportunities to all team members and applicants, and it prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, caste, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by our policies or federal, state, or local laws.

We want to ensure that our hiring process is accessible. If you need reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process because of a medical condition or disability, please send an email to careers@duckduckgo.com to let us know the nature of your request.

1. You’ll be required to attend meetings on camera via video conferencing

2. Expect to travel at least two times a year: once for our all-hands meetup and again for a team retreat (each around 4-5 days). While extenuating circumstances may impact attendance, everyone is strongly encouraged to attend.

3. While we offer a flexible work arrangement with no core hours, expect an average full-time commitment of 40 hours per week.

4. A successful candidate must pass a background check as a condition of joining the team.

5. By applying for this role, you confirm that all information submitted is accurate and complete. You further acknowledge that providing false or fraudulent information during the application process is cause for denial of an offer, revocation of any existing offer, or other adverse action, up to and including termination after the start of your commencement of work.

As part of our commitment to enhancing our recruitment process, we utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technology to assist in reviewing and summarizing job applications and test projects, including those tools integrated into our recruitment vendor platforms. We use AI to flag potentially fraudulent applications, analyze and summarize applicants’ experience, interviews, and project performance, and help streamline our selection process.

Key Principles:

1. Data Privacy: All information provided in your application will be handled in accordance with our Recruiting Privacy Policy. We ensure that your personal information is protected and used solely for recruitment purposes.

2. Human Oversight and Accountability: The AI technology is designed to support our hiring team by providing insights and summaries of applications and evaluations of test projects against scoring rubrics. All final evaluations and hiring decisions, however, will be made by our hiring team, who will consider the AI's input alongside other factors.

3. Transparency: We believe in transparency regarding our hiring practices. If you have any questions about how AI is used in our recruitment process, please feel free to reach out to us.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge and consent to the use of AI technology in our review process. If you would like to request an alternative selection process, please contact us as at careers@duckduckgo.com. Thank you for your interest in joining DuckDuckGo!