Principal Product Designer

Job description

At Linear, we're building the product development system for teams and agents. AI is fundamentally changing how software gets built, and we’re shaping the tools this new era requires. Founded in 2019, Linear has become the platform of choice for more than 40,000 companies (including OpenAI, Coinbase, and Ramp) to plan, build, and ship their products. Today, our team is distributed across North America, Europe, and Australia, and we’re continuing to grow internationally. What unites us is relentless focus, fast execution, and a deep care for software craftsmanship. Quality is our competitive advantage. Every member of our fully remote team is a maker at heart, caring deeply about the quality and feel of our work. While the industry optimizes for speed and metrics alone, we believe that craft and quality have lasting value. Quality creates gravity — it pulls people toward our team and product rather than requiring us to push. This philosophy drives everything we do, from product decisions to hiring choices. For this role, we expect robust design skills, sharp product thinking, and the ability to engage in technical discussions. We work in small, autonomous project teams, where engineers are paired tightly with designers to explore ideas, build prototypes, deploy internal builds, and ultimately ship to customers. You will be a key element of projects from beginning to end. Location & work mode Linear is a remote-first company, with optional co-working offices in San Francisco, New York, and London. This role is open to candidates based in North America and Europe. You can work from anywhere within this region. We value deep focus and async collaboration, with intentional moments to connect in person through team off-sites, optional co-working, and occasional travel. What you'll do - Pair closely with engineering and product to initiate and complete roadmap projects, no hand-offs - Spot opportunities to redesign or refine key screens and flows, as well as smaller quality issues and “paper cuts” as you use Linear - Create mockups, prototypes, and high-fidelity visuals to communicate ideas and describe their execution - Guide and inspire fellow designers through collaborative critique of work-in-progress - Use and improve our lightweight design system components - Help with hiring new teammates that can elevate our team and product What we’re looking for - 7+ years experience designing software - Courage to ask questions, experiment, and advocate for what you feel is right - Humility to accept feedback, adapt your thinking, and iterate toward the best solution - Experience with prototyping in Figma (and beyond with tools like AI, HTML/CSS, Origami) - Ability to distill problems and feedback, then design clear, focused solutions - Effective written and verbal communication skills — much of our work is async What we offer We're a small, focused team that cares deeply about the quality of our work and the people we do it with. Here's what you can expect: - Competitive salary and equity - Employee-friendly equity terms including early exercise in the US and extended exercise windows - Daily meal and coffee stipend on every workday - Paid co-working space or desk - Health coverage (based on country requirements) - 5 weeks paid vacation, plus local statutory holidays - 4 months paid parental leave - Paid month off after 4 years & every 2 years thereafter - Regular team events and off-sites - Remote-first with no required commute Learn how we think and work - How we hire at Linear https://linear.app/now/how-we-hire-at-linear Linear blog post - Part I https://linear.app/blog/a-design-reset and Part II https://linear.app/blog/how-we-redesigned-the-linear-ui of how we redesigned the Linear UI - Read me https://linear.app/readme a story about our mission - Why and how we do work trials https://linear.app/blog/why-and-how-we-do-work-trials-at-linear Linear blog post - How we use AI in design https://designerfund.substack.com/p/ai-design-linear feature of Linear's design team - Crafting quality that endures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCil7YNhNCU Config keynote by our Co-founder & CEO, Karri Saarinen - Building for quality: Our Investment in Linear https://accel.com/noteworthy/our-investment-in-linear Accel Series B blog post Linear is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. A note on recruitment fraud: all official Linear hiring communication comes from an @linear.app http://linear.app email address, and all open roles are listed at linear.app/careers http://linear.app/careers. We never ask candidates for payment or financial information. Suspicious messages can be reported to security@linear.app.