Senior Product Designer

About Primer

Fixing our K-12 education system is a civilizationally-important problem. We believe that all of our problems — including the ones that dominate the headlines — are downstream of education.

We have a simple thesis on how to solve it: empower 1,000's of educators to launch microschools in their communities.

We believe the historical tradeoff between price (tuition) and quality is a false dichotomy.

PrimerOS automates and eliminates much of the costs of traditional schools. Microschools have a structural advantage — asset-light real estate — which means much lower capex and opex. You put it together, and you get something that's never existed before: a world-class education that's accessible to normal American families and can rapidly scale.

Role Overview

We're looking for our second product designer to join Primer, a full-stack education company reimagining what school can be. Unlike traditional edtech companies, we operate real schools—sourcing real estate, hiring teachers, enrolling families, and managing everything from daily learning to graduation.

This role is based in our San Francisco office, working alongside our design leadership on challenges that span far beyond traditional digital product design.

What You'll Do

Our design challenges span the entire school experience—web dashboards, mobile apps, TV applications, open house materials, school signage, and operational tools. You'll independently drive projects from discovery through delivery, talking to students, families, and teachers to understand their needs, then designing everything from data visualizations to physical materials.

What We're Looking For

• 3+ years of full-time product or UI/UX design experience

• Portfolio showing high-quality, polished, and modern designs and project impact (user feedback, metrics, or business results)

• Clear and concise communication style with strong "why" behind your decisions

• Has driven design projects from concept to completion, including user research, designing at different fidelities, and prototyping

• Experience designing for web and mobile platforms

• Skilled at working with stakeholders to clarify project scope and objectives

• Something Extra: We value diverse backgrounds because our challenges span so many domains. Whether you have experience in real estate, interior design, data visualization, compliance, or something completely different—if you bring unique perspectives beyond traditional digital design, we want to hear about it

• Excited to work on-site in San Francisco

What It's Like Here

You'll start with a hands-on project and spend a week as a teaching assistant at one of our school sites to understand how our schools actually operate. Product, design, and engineering sit together, so you can walk over with questions or hop on quick huddles. You'll participate in weekly design reviews with non-technical stakeholders and gradually take on more complex projects, running user research and contributing to our design system.

By 90 days, you'll participate in quarterly planning and track the impact of your shipped projects. We eat free lunch together daily and maintain a supportive culture that makes complex work manageable.

Why Join Primer

We're building something really hard—a technology company that operates real schools. The design challenges are incredibly varied, the mission is meaningful, and you'll use every skill in your toolkit. Watch our CEO Ryan talk about the inspiration, the challenges, and the impact we’re having: YouTube Interview

We believe in staying lean and outperforming through smart use of tools, including using AI when it amplifies human connection. As a fast-growing startup, we offer salary commensurate with experience, plus significant equity and comprehensive benefits including 100% health insurance, life insurance, and daily lunch.

If this sounds like you, fill out the application below with a bit about yourself and we'll take it from there!