Founding Designer

About the company

telli is developing a platform for building AI voice agents for consumer-facing businesses. The team sees a major shift coming in phone-based customer interactions, where AI voice systems will increasingly handle conversations for B2C companies such as energy, telecom, and insurance providers. The product vision is to make voice-based customer support and engagement scalable, useful, and far more natural than traditional phone experiences.

The company believes the market opportunity is large and that strong product execution will be central to winning it.

Role overview

This position is a founding designer role with broad ownership and a strong focus on speed, customer impact, and end-to-end product thinking. Rather than limiting the work to creating screens, the role covers the full design cycle, including direct customer conversations, product thinking, UX decisions, and interface design. The designer will have a major influence on the direction of a fast-growing product.

As the first full-time designer, you will lead UX and UI across the product. The role calls for designing complex, AI-driven workflows while keeping the experience simple and approachable for non-technical users.

What you'll do

• Work directly with customers to understand their challenges and turn those insights into practical design solutions.
• Take charge of the design process from initial discovery through delivery for new product features.
• Spot opportunities for new AI-powered product ideas, shape concepts, and create prototypes together with customers.
• Design clear, intuitive interfaces for an AI-first product where conventional UI patterns may not apply.
• Partner closely with engineers to deliver polished, production-ready features quickly.

What we're looking for

• Hands-on experience designing UX and UI for software products, ideally in an early-stage startup environment and preferably on B2B SaaS products.
• Strong product-design ability with excellent attention to detail, including interaction design, visual design, and design systems.
• Comfort working beyond static Figma mockups by creating interactive prototypes using tools such as v0, Lovable, Cursor, or Figma Make.
• Strong customer-facing skills and the ability to independently run the design process from discovery to launch.
• Comfort in fast-moving, uncertain environments, with a mindset that learns quickly and focuses on the highest-impact work.
• A strong appreciation for shipping high-quality software, with careful attention to visual polish and interaction details.
• Genuine interest in AI and LLMs, plus enthusiasm for the design challenges of voice interfaces.

What makes a strong fit

• Alignment with the team’s principles.
• A high level of ownership and accountability for projects.
• Interest in working on-site in Berlin.
• Comfort operating in a high-ambiguity, high-speed environment.
• Ability to prioritize work that creates the most leverage.
• Preference for a smart, driven team with low ego.
• Motivation to help build a large company from the ground up.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating work on complex, user-centered products.

Who may not be a fit

• People who prefer a remote-first setup.
• People who prefer to work alone with very little collaboration.
• People without prior experience collaborating with software engineering teams.
• People who want to focus only on visual design rather than the full user experience.
• People who do not see practical value in AI.
• People looking for a standard 9-to-5 schedule.

Perks and benefits

• Compensation above market levels, plus equity.
• Access to any AI or productivity tool that helps you work more effectively.
• Gym membership.
• Relocation assistance for candidates who are not currently based in Berlin.