AI Design Engineer | CO-2653

FWD People is a full-service strategically-led marketing agency delivering meaningful and measurable results in the human and animal health sectors. sectors. We take pride in being our clients' trusted strategic partner—staying ahead of the curve, and leveraging our expertise and foresight to help them navigate change and seize opportunities. We approach every challenge with a commitment to innovation, excellence, flexibility, and empathy, the same qualities we seek in our team. As a fast-growing, hands-on senior group, we're excited to welcome more forward-thinking individuals who will help us drive growth, foster positive workflows, and have fun along the way.

We're looking for an AI Design Engineer to partner directly with our CEO on designing, building, and shipping AI-powered tools and product solutions for the agency, end to end. Strong product judgment and design instincts matter as much as technical skill: this isn't just coding, it's building things well, on your own, with real ownership.

WHY THIS ROLE

Zero Bureaucracy: A direct line to the CEO, if an idea's good, you're building it the same day!

Cutting-Edge Stack: No legacy technical debt. You'll be encouraged to use the best AI tooling available as it evolves!

Real Ownership: A collaborative, output-focused contract that respects your autonomy - you design it, build it, and ship it, start to finish.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Strategic Ideation & Partnering: Work directly with the CEO to brainstorm, vet, and refine ideas for internal tools and agency tech solutions.

Design & Build, End to End: Take a rough idea and own it fully: design the experience, build it, and ship it, with the same care for aesthetic and craft (typography, spacing, interactions) you'd bring to your own side projects.

Prototype rapidly with AI: Use tools like Cursor, Replit Agent, Claude Code, and v0 to spin up proof-of-concepts, interactive mockups, and working MVPs in hours, not weeks.

Bridge the gap: Translate high-level business goals and creative briefs into working products the team can actually use — no separate designer or dev team needed.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• AI Native Builder: A portfolio with at least one product you designed AND built alone, end to end (a live link, not mockups) using modern AI coding tools (Cursor, v0, Claude Code, or similar).

• A Design Eye: Your own site or side projects are polished - good typography, spacing, micro-interactions.Craft is the qualification.

• Speed and comfort with ambiguity: You ship fast and don't need a stable spec to move, even as the only technical person in the room.

• Technical range: You understand how modern web apps actually work: APIs, databases, LLM integration, authentication, cloud deployment.

• Product instincts: You challenge assumptions, optimize UX, and can turn a CEO's casual idea into a structured plan: then explain the business "why" in plain language to non-technical stakeholders.

WORKING AT FWD PEOPLE

We are a senior team that champions integrity, adaptability, excellence, and growth. Here, you'll collaborate with solution-focused colleagues to advance both our clients and our teams.

Our office is located in Brooklyn Heights, and we offer a flexible hybrid work schedule. We value in-person collaboration and connection but also understand the importance of offering the flexibility to work from home.

We are dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and respected. As an equal-opportunity employer, we welcome differences in race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, and more. We believe that diversity drives innovation and success, and we are committed to ensuring equal opportunities and fostering a culture of respect and collaboration.