Design Technologist, AI

About the role:

We are looking for an UX Design Engineer with a strong engineering and technical prototyping background, driven by a passion for user-centered design, to help us build the future of personalized product experiences. This role focuses on using AI, automation, and customer data to generate dynamic, high fidelity prototypes that reflect each firm’s unique workflows and financial patterns. These prototypes will support rapid user testing and help the team validate AI driven product concepts with real-world context.

You will combine design system components, Figma assets, structured data, and model behavior into interactive simulations that feel close to the final product. This is a hands-on technical role that sits within Product Design but collaborates deeply with Engineering, Product, and Research.

About us:

At 8am, our vision is to power a world where professionals thrive. We start every day on a mission to empower professionals with the most trusted, innovative technology to deliver world-class outcomes for their clients and exceptional financial results for their business. They count on our purpose-built solutions to simplify operations, ensure compliance, and fuel profitable growth, so they can focus on their clients and do more of the work that matters.

Founded in 2005, 8am™ (formerly AffiniPay) is the professional business platform built to help legal, accounting, and other client-focused professionals run stronger, more profitable businesses. Today, more than 250,000 professionals across the U.S. trust 8am to help them work smarter, serve clients better, and unlock their full potential. We have been recognized as one of Inc 5000’s fastest growing companies in the U.S. for 13 years in a row, and as a result, our teams continue to grow as well!

What you'll do:

• Integrate Figma designs, design system components, and real customer data into functional prototypes that adapt to firm-specific scenarios.
• Use scripting, lightweight front end development, and AI tools to automate the assembly of personalized prototype variations.
• Build logic to simulate data flows, predictive insights, and model responses inside prototype environments.

• Create experimental prototypes that demonstrate how personalized AI features should behave for different firm types and user roles.
• Simulate model outputs and contextual intelligence to test flows such as recommendations, financial projections, drafting, or workflow automation.
• Work with User Research to design tests that capture how users interact with personalized AI driven experiences.

• Develop internal utilities that automate prototype generation and speed up experimentation cycles.
• Maintain toolchains that connect design assets, customer data schemas, and AI model behavior.
• Partner with Engineering to translate prototype workflows into scalable implementation paths by providing a clear plan and integration strategy with your peers in Engineering.

• Evaluate emerging prototyping frameworks, AI tooling, multimodal design platforms, and generative UI technologies.
• Identify opportunities to use model outputs, embeddings, or data transformations to improve prototype realism.
• Guide the team on best practices for testing dynamic, AI-driven product experiences.
• Ensure prototypes that are produced are performant and scalable.

About you:

• 4+ years of experience as a front end engineer, creative technologist, prototyper, or similar hybrid role.
• 2+ years of experience building interactive prototypes or lightweight applications using web technologies such as JavaScript (optional), TypeScript, or React (required).
• Strong understanding of user-centered design principles, usability, accessibility, and inclusive design, with the proven ability to apply these to complex, data-driven, and AI-powered product experiences.
• Experience integrating APIs, working with JSON data structures, and manipulating structured datasets.
• Experience with scripting or automation techniques for connecting design assets, model outputs, and data sources.
• Working knowledge of Figma and design system concepts such as tokens, components, and variants.
• Experience using AI tools or LLMs to automate workflows or generate dynamic UI states.
• Ability to translate Figma direction and product requirements into functional, testable prototype flows.
• Strong communication skills and an ability to collaborate closely with Product Designers, Engineers, and Researchers.

Nice to Have: 

• 6+ years of combined experience across engineering, prototyping, or technical design roles.
• Experience working in data heavy product domains such as fintech, legal tech, analytics, or enterprise SaaS.
• Experience with model driven interactions, prompt engineering, embeddings, or simulation of AI behavior in prototype environments.
• Experience creating internal tools, utilities, or frameworks that support design teams or rapid experimentation workflows.
• Familiarity with generative UI concepts, multimodal design tools, or research-based prototyping methods.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate customer data at scale into prototype logic, including transforming or normalizing real-world datasets.
• Experience running or supporting user testing of AI powered experiences and interpreting research outcomes.

Additional Information
The annual salary range for this position is $100,000 to $140,000. The salary range for performing this role outside of the US / Austin / California may differ.  8am is committed to offering competitive, fair and commensurate compensation and has provided an estimated pay range for this role. Actual compensation may vary based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience and education.
Why 8am: 

At 8am, our culture is shaped by the people who bring it to life every day. Together, we build a company rooted in continuous learning, genuine community, holistic wellness, and meaningful engagement—values that empower us as individuals and unite us as a team. Our culture is grounded in our core values: Work Smart, Win Fast; Outshine Ordinary, and We Find a Way. These values drive how we serve our customers and work with each other in a collaborative, inspiring, and empowering environment, every day.

Here’s how we support our 8Team:

• Health Insurance Coverage: We offer our 8Team a variety of medical, dental, and vision plans, designed to fit your needs, including a 100% company-paid HDHP plan for employees.
• Financial perks: We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package including annual bonuses, equity options and 401(k) or RRSP if in Canada, with a company match for all team members.
• Time for what matters: Flexible Time Off, paid holidays, and a parental leave program for our new parents.
• Wellness: Wellness stipends, mental health support, and one-on-one nutrition coaching.
• Learning and Development: Continuous learning through 8am.edu, leadership programs, professional development funds, and individually focused talent development.
• Giving back to the communities around us: Participate in our charitable matching gift program, paid time off for volunteer service, and company-sponsored volunteer events (both local and virtually).
• Engagement: Virtual and in-person team-building events, quarterly award recognition through our Rise & Shine Award of Excellence Program, and our peer-to-peer appreciation platform.

At 8am, we don’t just offer benefits - we create an environment where people can thrive, grow, and make a real impact every day.

Diversity, equity & inclusion at 8am:

At 8am, we recognize that innovation occurs with a strong team of people who are diverse in background, personality, talent and ideas. Experience comes in many forms and ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace where we continue to learn from each other is an integral part of our culture. We are committed to creating a welcoming and transparent environment for all that embraces those differences through education, equal access to opportunities and information, inclusionary programs, and community outreach. 

Security advisory:

Our hiring teams at 8am are dedicated to recruiting top talent that share our passion for serving the professional services industry through innovative financial technology.  As such, our Talent Acquisition Team only follows legitimate hiring practices.  We will always communicate with our candidates using emails with the 8am domain and will never ask for sensitive/personal data during the application process.  All interviews take place over phone call, Zoom/Google Meet or in person.  All offers are communicated verbally by our Talent Acquisition Specialists with a written offer letter as a follow up.