About Human Ventures

Human Ventures is a leading New York based startup studio and early-stage venture fund investing in pre-seed through Series A technology companies innovating around the human needs economy. Focused on providing an unparalleled network and platform, Human Ventures takes a human-first approach to finding and accelerating builders from the very beginning. Founded by General Partner and CEO Heather Hartnett and serial entrepreneur Joe Marchese, Human has invested in and co-built more than 65 companies, with key investments including Reserve (acquired), Komos Tequila, Current, TheSkimm, Tiny Organics, and Tia Health. To learn more, visit www.human.vc.

Role Overview

We’re looking for a Product Designer to join our team in NYC, where you’ll work with founders across the Human Ventures portfolio. This role is a unique opportunity to operate at the intersection of design, product, and early-stage company building—working both on internal Human Ventures initiatives and directly with companies across our portfolio to build and solidify product direction and design.

You’ll help bring ideas to life—rapidly prototyping, refining, and building products from zero to one, as well as providing thought leadership on all things UX, UI and product design.

This role is a contract to hire opportunity.

What You’ll Do

• Work directly with founders to translate the core vision into an intuitive and impactful user-centric design solution.
• Lead full end-to-end product design—from early concepts and wireframes to polished UI and developer-ready files.
• Design product concepts that balance vision, craft, speed, and business potential.
• Create user flows, prototypes, and interaction models that bring clarity to complex ideas.
• Collaborate directly with founders, engineers, and product leads to design MVPs and v1 experiences.
• Use AI as a partner to increase efficiency without sacrificing human-first principles.
• Help inform product strategy and identify opportunities for differentiation through design.
• Develop the initial branding tools and brand identity in partnership with leadership teams.
• Use industry standard tools and practices to gather user feedback and usage data, test product variants and continuously revise product specs in order to delight users

Who You Are

• Passionate about new technologies, emerging trends, and cultural shifts—curious about where the world is going with your finger on the pulse of culture.
• Have strong instincts for user-centered design, understand, and are curious about consumer/user behavior.
• Comfortable jumping into ambiguous problems and turning ideas into clear visual outputs.
• A sharp eye for design and detail, but able to prioritize speed and clarity over polish when needed.
• You value agency, and want to take tangible action and build instead of writing proposals.
• Have experience designing across both mobile and web platforms.
• Someone who wants to work across a wide range of industries and product types—no two days will look the same.
• You enjoy working cross team, from engineering to sales to marketing and beyond in order to ideate.
• NYC-based and excited to work in person with a tight-knit, collaborative team.

Human Ventures is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.