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Senior Product Designer

Remote/USA

Hi! We're Forerunner.

We build modern software that helps local governments manage risk, strengthen resilience, and simplify critical workflows. From floodplain management, emergency response, and disaster recovery, to grant tracking, code enforcement, and infrastructure oversight — our platform supports agencies across a wide range of use cases so communities can make faster, smarter decisions when it matters most.

Our mission is simple: communities deserve tools as dynamic and adaptive as the challenges they face. We’re here to support the public servants on the front lines of resilience and governance.

About the position: 

Great design builds trust. At Forerunner, it also helps communities adapt to change.

We’re looking for a Senior Product Designer to own complex, cross-functional work — from defining problem spaces and success metrics to shipping polished, accessible workflows. Some days you’ll be deep in research and systems thinking; other days you’ll sweat interaction details and run design reviews to ensure quality. If you like moving between vision and detailed execution, you’ll feel right at home.

Your work will help public servants track grants, enforce codes, manage assets, and communicate risk — the everyday decisions that keep communities safe and running. You’ll set a high bar for clarity and responsibility, because when those services affect people’s lives and futures, design can’t be an afterthought.

What You’ll Do

Discover & Define

  • Partner with PM + Eng to clarify problems, define scope, and set measurable outcomes.
  • Lead discovery: interviews, task analyses, field / context research; turn insights into strategy.
  • Anticipate edge cases, constraints, and operational realities early.

Design & Deliver

  • Design end-to-end flows across web and mobile, from low-fi to high-fi.
  • Prototype quickly (Figma, lightweight code when helpful) and validate with users.
  • Drive implementation with engineering and run final design reviews before launch.

Systematize

  • Contribute to our design system (Figma + component library), ensuring scalable, accessible patterns.
  • Document rationale and decisions so teams can move faster with confidence.

Collaborate & Influence

  • Build trusted relationships with PM, Eng, and CS; facilitate alignment in ambiguity.
  • Communicate clearly to drive decisions and tell compelling product stories.
  • Share feedback generously; help raise the quality bar across teams.

About you

  • You’ve led complex product design projects before — from early discovery through to launch — and influenced product direction, not just executed on it.
  • Your portfolio shows systems thinking, crisp UX, and an ability to simplify complex workflows.
  • You bring depth in user research and product judgment: you know how to frame problems, validate solutions, and connect design choices to measurable outcomes.
  • You’re fluent in Figma and comfortable building and evolving design systems; you can prototype at multiple fidelities to communicate ideas.
  • You’re a clear communicator who can tell compelling product stories and align cross-functional partners.
  • You thrive in ambiguity and bring proactive ownership to defining problem spaces and solutions.
  • You’re collaborative and humble — you elevate teammates, welcome feedback, and contribute to design culture.

(Typically this means 5–8 years of experience in product design or equivalent depth — but we care more about the impact you’ve had than the exact number of years.)

Bonus: experience in civic tech, climate tools, or other high-stakes, data-heavy domains.

Our team has a lot to offer.

Forerunner is an early stage company with an interdisciplinary team. We are motivated by seemingly intractable problems and work hard to support one another.

  • High bar. We sweat details in flows, interactions, and storytelling because great design builds trust. Earlier this year, our team spoke at Figma’s Config about design for climate resilience (watch here) — a reflection of how seriously we take design craft across the company.
  • We're mission-driven. Our mission orients our business strategy and pushes us to work with a sense of urgency. We’re in the weeds -- our entire team spends time engaging with our partners in the field to better understand the real-world problems they face.
  • We're a small team. As a member of our growing team, you will quickly become an invaluable part of our organization and have a meaningful impact on our business and technical direction. We welcome unique perspectives and backgrounds. Your opinion matters and we hope you'll share it.
  • We're a remote-first organization, with offices in NYC, San Francisco and Portland, ME. Many members of our team work remotely, but we have small offices in San Francisco and Portland, ME. We offer schedule flexibility for all of our employees and ask for accountability in return.
  • We want you to be happy and healthy. Forerunner offers competitive compensation, health/vision/dental coverage, and commuter benefits. We also have a quarterly wellness reimbursement so that you can have flexibility in defining what “health” means to you.
  • The salary range for this position is $160,000-$190,000. This posting may span more than one career level. Compensation is determined based on a variety of factors, including an individual’s skills, experience, qualifications, and working location.

Forerunner is an equal opportunity employer committed to embracing diversity and the perspectives of individuals from all backgrounds.

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