Design Engineer
Job Description
About Us
Rho is the modern banking platform built for startups. Open accounts in minutes, issue cards, manage expenses, pay bills, and close the books – all in one connected platform backed by real human support.
A role for those committed to designing with uncommon care.
Most of a banking product is invisible when it's done right. The transfer that confirms with a motion so clean you feel it settle. The card that materializes like it was always going to. The empty state you almost want to keep looking at. Nobody files a support ticket about these things. They just trust the product a little more, and they can't tell you why.
We're hiring a Lead or Staff Design Engineer to own exactly that layer: the feel. The motion, the microinteractions, the details most companies never get to because they're too busy shipping features. We are not too busy. We think this is the work.
What you'll do
You live in the browser, in code, in the space between "it functions" and "it feels inevitable." You build the interactions, the transitions, the animations, and the components that make Rho feel like the most considered product our customers use all day. Then you write the libraries that let the rest of the team hit that bar without you in the room.
This is not a product design role. You're not writing PRDs, running discovery, or owning a roadmap. You're the person who takes something that works and makes it sing, and who builds the systems that make singing the default.
If you've ever reimplemented an animation three times because the first two were 40ms too slow and felt cheap, you already understand the job.
• Own the feel of the product. Motion, microinteractions, transitions, gestures, the physics of how things move and respond. Every one of them earns trust or spends it.
• Build the libraries no one else has built. Animation primitives, interaction patterns, and components that are genuinely new, not a re-skin of what's already on npm. We want work that other design engineers screenshot.
• Ship in code. You build the real thing, in the real medium, at production quality. Figma is where a conversation starts, not where craft is decided.
• Set the craft bar in motion. Define what "good" feels like at Rho and encode it into a system, tokens, easing curves, timing, springs, so the whole product moves with one considered voice.
• Sweat details nobody asked you to sweat. The half-pixel. The 20ms. The focus ring. The way a number ticks up. This is the entire job, not a footnote to it.
Who you are
You've been doing this for a while, and you have the receipts: at least 7 years building production interfaces, with a body of work that is visibly, unusually crafted. This is a lead role: you set the craft bar for the feel of the product and raise everyone around you to it, through the work itself and the systems you leave behind. We need to see it. A portfolio, a personal site, a component library, shipped work, live demos, something we can open and feel the care in.
You are the kind of person who:
• Thinks Emil Kowalski and Josh Puckett are describing the job, not the aspiration. If those names mean nothing to you, this role probably isn't yours yet. If they make you nod, keep reading.
• Has strong opinions about motion. You know why the default ease is wrong, when a spring beats a curve, what makes an animation feel expensive versus cheap, and when the answer is no animation at all. You can defend every one of these.
• Writes real code. React, TypeScript, CSS at a level where you're building the hard interaction, not styling someone else's. You've probably published a library, or wanted to.
• Is a genuine craftsperson, not a generalist who dabbles in polish. Your happiest hours are spent alone with a hard interaction problem, iterating past the point most people would call it done.
• Has taste and can't turn it off. Sloppy motion physically bothers you. You notice the jank in other people's products. You've rebuilt things for free just because they annoyed you.
Who this is NOT for
• Product designers looking to move into engineering. This is the reverse: a builder who obsesses over feel. If your portfolio is flows, journey maps, and product cases, that's a different (great) role, apply for our Product Designer opening instead.
• Engineers who tolerate design. You have to love the pixel, not just implement it.
• Anyone early or mid-career. This is a lead/staff craft role. You need years of taste, reps, and shipped work behind you, and the standing to set the bar for others. We'd love to meet you down the line.
• People who think "good enough, ship it" is a virtue. It sometimes is. Not here, not on this layer.
• Anyone who needs the interaction spec handed to them. You define what great feels like; nobody's going to define it for you.
The bar
We want Rho to feel like the most crafted financial product in the world, calm, confident, alive. Restraint over decoration. Motion with a reason. Details that reward the customer even when they don't consciously notice. If you've read this far and you're already thinking about how you'd rebuild one of our transitions, we should talk.
Our people are our most valuable asset. The salary range for this role is $130,000 - $300,000. Base salary may vary depending on relevant experience, skills, and business needs. In addition to base pay, Rho offers equity, healthcare benefits, and paid time off.
Diversity is a core value at Rho. We’re passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable environment for all those involved with our mission, including employees, contractors, candidates, customers, and vendors. We believe every member of the Rho community enriches our ability to provide a broad range of ways to understand and engage with the market, identify problems, and drive solutions that align with our mission. We welcome all qualified applications and support each of our Rho’ers with ongoing professional growth opportunities.
Requirements
Department: Product
Team: Product Design