SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
GovWell is building an AI operating system to transform how governments serve communities. The company replaces legacy software for municipalities and counties, enabling public servants to streamline services and reduce internal processing time for permits and licenses by up to 95%. Founded in 2023, GovWell powers 5,000+ mission-critical processes for agencies in 35+ states serving millions of residents, with $35M in funding from Insight Partners, Work-Bench, and Bienville Capital.
You will be GovWell's first design leader, establishing the principles, systems, and standards that shape every product while remaining deeply hands-on. Initially, you'll function as a full-time individual contributor and thought leader, with the opportunity to build and lead the design team as the company grows. You report directly to the CTO and Co-Founder.
Key responsibilities include: setting the design vision and defining principles that make products intuitive and differentiated; reimagining the core platform's visual design and interaction patterns for complex government workflows; designing AI-native experiences that integrate AI as a cohesive part of the product rather than a bolted-on feature; building a design system with components, patterns, and guidance for product and engineering teams; developing deep understanding of government staff, residents, contractors, and business owners to inform product experiences; partnering closely with the Head of Product and engineers from exploration through implementation; and building the design function from 0 to 1, eventually hiring and developing a world-class team.
The role addresses a rare design challenge: local governments run some of the most complex workflows in the economy, and you'll make that complexity feel simple without stripping away the power public servants need. Your work will affect millions of Americans—from helping small businesses open sooner to accelerating affordable housing construction.
GovWell has found product-market fit with 4X ARR growth in the last year and operates with a hybrid culture combining regular in-person collaboration at the NYC office (3+ days per week) with remote flexibility.
Design tools used: Lovable, Cursor, Figma.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Track record of designing intuitive, beautiful products for complex use cases
- Exceptional hands-on product designer who can take ambiguous problems through to polished experiences
- Strong product judgment; ability to challenge assumptions, simplify workflows, and help determine what should be built
- Active user of AI with thoughtful, evolving opinions on how it should reshape software experiences
- Ability to establish design systems that help teams move faster without letting the system become bureaucratic
- Clear communicator who can bring founders, product managers, engineers, and customers along with your thinking
- Comfortable moving between articulating multi-year product vision and debating details (labels, states, interactions)
- Desire to create a design function and eventually lead a team, energized by starting as hands-on individual contributor
- Ability to deeply understand needs of government staff and residents (prior govtech experience not required)
- Alignment with company core values
