Design Engineer

About Purelend

Purelend is an innovative early-stage company at the crossroads of financial technology and artificial intelligence. Our compact founding group is transforming banking systems by automating traditionally manual and time-consuming mortgage underwriting and checks, enabling faster mortgage funding for our clients.

Product and Customers

Our user base consists of mortgage brokers, underwriters, and lenders who rely on our product extensively during their daily tasks. Each interface we deliver aims to either simplify their work or clearly highlight issues, with little room for mediocrity.

AI Integration

We fully embrace AI across every function—from engineering and design to support and sales—using advanced AI tools to enhance quality and productivity. We're seeking a candidate eager to integrate AI more deeply into design and front-end processes.

Role Overview

The Design Engineer will take full ownership of the product experience, blending design, user experience, and front-end implementation. Responsibilities include understanding customer needs, deciding development priorities, designing interfaces, and coding using React, Tailwind CSS, and TypeScript. Collaboration across all aspects of product delivery without segmented handoffs is expected.

Key Responsibilities

• Observe real users (brokers and underwriters) working with the product in their natural environment to identify usability improvements.
• Collaborate with founders and the team to prioritize product features and rapidly prototype multiple versions for user feedback.
• Create designs sometimes directly in code for efficiency, focusing on usability over aesthetics alone, with keen attention to typography, spacing, hierarchy, motion, and color.
• Develop and maintain the front-end using React, Tailwind, TypeScript, and Next.js features; ensure high-quality, accessible, and responsive user interfaces.
• Oversee and improve the design system including UI components, tokens, and patterns to ensure visual and functional consistency.
• Deliver working prototypes quickly for direct user evaluation, leveraging data-driven decisions to iterate features effectively.

Candidate Profile

• 4 to 8 years experience blending design and engineering roles, with demonstrated hands-on delivery of production React applications.
• Proficient with React, Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS or capable of quickly mastering them.
• Possesses a portfolio showcasing design rationale and outcomes based on user research and feedback.
• Exemplifies excellent design judgment focused on functional and sustainable UI over marketing-oriented visuals.
• Strong interaction design skills including motion design, feedback mechanisms, keyboard navigation, focus management, and accessibility compliance.
• Experience working with complex, data-heavy user interfaces such as tables, document viewers, and status pipelines.
• Confident engaging directly with customers to gather insights that influence product direction.
• Capable of collaborating closely with engineers, balancing design ideals with technical feasibility.
• Adopts an AI-first approach by employing advanced AI tools for design and coding to augment productivity and innovation.

Exclusions

• Pure designers who rely entirely on engineers for implementation.
• Pure engineers unable to originate design from scratch.
• Those who see design only as decoration rather than a fundamental to product function.
• Applicants who prefer established design systems and processes rather than building these components from the ground up.

Why Join Us?

This role provides a unique opportunity to shape the entire visual and interactive experience of a fintech product at its foundational stage, establishing high standards for usability and aesthetics unmatched in the sector.

Compensation and Location

We provide a competitive compensation package combining salary and equity.

• Workplace: Calgary, Alberta, in-office.
• Reports to the CTO, Seb Hiscock.