Contract Product Designer

ABOUT HFC

HappyFunCorp is a senior-led product development consultancy. Founded in Brooklyn in 2009 and now fully remote, our distributed team of engineers, designers, and product architects has shipped 200+ products for clients ranging from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies –  Nike, Samsung, Disney, Audible, Bookshop.org, Lennar, and many others.

We work across web, mobile, AI, IoT, and enterprise modernization. The kinds of problems we solve vary widely, which is what keeps the work interesting.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We’re hiring a Senior Product Designer on a contract basis (20–30 hours per week) to lead design across a range of client engagements.

This is an individual contributor role with meaningful variety. One engagement you might be shaping a zero-to-one AI product with a founding team; the next, extending a mature design system for an enterprise modernization; the one after that, a connected device experience or a high-scale e-commerce rebuild.

You’ll own the work end to end: research, flows, UI, prototypes, and design system contributions, collaborating directly with product managers, engineers, and clients.

How the 20–30 hours flex: Some weeks you’ll be deep on a single engagement; other weeks you’ll split across two in lighter capacities – leading one and contributing to another. We shape that together based on the engagement phase and pipeline.

If you need rigid scope or predictability to do your best work, this isn’t the right fit.

Two things about how we work matter most:

• We approach every project through the lens of design systems.
• We use AI within modern design tools to move faster and connect design more directly to code.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Lead design end-to-end across client engagements, from discovery through shipped product and iteration
• Run user research (interviews, usability testing, synthesis) and translate findings into product direction
• Produce design work in Figma across the full spectrum: flows, wireframes, high-fidelity UI, prototypes, and system components
• Build, extend, and maintain design systems including components, variables, and patterns
• Integrate AI into your workflow to accelerate execution and improve output quality
• Collaborate directly with engineers, PMs, and clients in working sessions and reviews
• Present and defend design decisions with stakeholders ranging from founders to enterprise leaders

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• You quickly turn ambiguous client problems into clear, actionable design direction
• You produce high-quality, production-ready work with minimal oversight
• You think in systems, not screens, and improve the underlying structure of the product
• You collaborate seamlessly with engineers and PMs and earn client trust
• You use AI to accelerate execution without compromising craft or judgment
• You can context-switch across engagements without losing quality or momentum

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Strong visual craft and a clear point of view
• Experience designing and shipping both B2B and consumer products
• Deep experience working within design systems (components, variants, tokens)
• Hands-on experience integrating AI into your design workflow
• Comfort working directly with engineers and PMs
• Strong written communication
• A portfolio that demonstrates range across project types
• Some familiarity with GitHub (issues, PRs, documentation) is a plus

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS (MUST HAVE'S)

• 5+ years of product design experience
• Portfolio or case studies required
• Strong Figma proficiency (including design systems)
• Experience using AI in a modern design workflow
• Based in the US or Canada with overlap with US Eastern hours
• Available for 20–30 hours/week and open to contract-to-hire