Forward Deployed Product Designer

Scale is hiring a Senior/Staff Product Designer to lead product design for Scale's Public Sector business unit. The mission of Scale's Public Sector team is to bring AI-powered decision support directly to government and defense customers - deploying trusted, mission-critical tools in the field, not just building internal software. This role will own the end-to-end design of one of our core mission workflows: planning (synthesizing information for senior decision-makers), operations (surfacing high-signal alerts from complex data streams), or analytical (research and reporting tools) - partnering with product from day one to shape ambiguous, high-stakes problems into deployable customer-facing experiences. This is a forward-deployed role: you'll work directly and regularly on-site with government and defense customers, representing design in the room and building the trust needed to get stakeholder buy-in without a manager present.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end design - from ambiguous, undefined requirements through wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and interactive prototypes - for a customer-facing government/defense product experience; Partner directly with Product as a peer from the earliest stages of a project, not just at handoff; Work forward-deployed, on-site with customers, building direct relationships and confidently socializing design decisions with stakeholders; Design for complex, data-dense workflows: dashboards, mapping interfaces, alerting systems, and analytical reporting tools; Work directly in code alongside engineers, going beyond static mockups to help build and refine the shipped experience; Contribute design assets and interaction patterns back to the broader platform, not just the account or project you're staffed on; Help calibrate and grow the design team by participating in portfolio reviews and interviews as we scale this function; Navigate high ambiguity - customer requirements are often not clean or fully defined, and you'll need to help define them.

Requirements

10–15 years of experience across a range of design settings and problem types; Experience owning end-to-end B2B or enterprise product experiences at a senior/staff level; Comfortable working with high ambiguity and evolving requirements, typical of early-stage government/enterprise engagements; Experience designing complex workflow UI, dashboards, or data-heavy/mapping interfaces; Strong client-facing presence - confident presenting to and winning over senior stakeholders in person; Working understanding of front-end development and how to hand off clean, implementable designs; comfort collaborating directly with engineers on code; Willingness to travel regularly to customer sites.

Nice to have

Experience in a client-facing role where you presented directly to senior stakeholders; Exposure to AI/ML tools and fluency using AI in your own design workflow; Experience contributing to a design system or shared interaction patterns across multiple products or teams.

Benefits

Equity; Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage; Retirement benefits; Learning and development stipend; Generous PTO; Commuter stipend