Role description
OXMANOXMAN
OXMAN is a nature-based research and design company based in Manhattan. We incubate ventures and technologies that reimagine the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Working across disciplines—from architecture and ecology to computation and materials science—we develop nature-centric solutions to critical environmental challenges.
EDEN
Existing environmental tools for site planning and development sit on either side of a gap: remote sensing observes what is already on the ground, and traditional simulations evaluate fixed plans someone has already drawn. EDEN is building a generative ecosystem digital twin that works from target outcomes, such as carbon sequestration, stormwater retention, microclimate cooling, biodiversity and the cost of site development, to discover the optimal earthworks, planting and management sequence that achieves them.
Our methods already work on real sites. Over the past several years we have embedded with developers, landowners and operators, designing and engineering their sites in closer harmony with the ecosystems around them, and building the tools we needed along the way. Those tools now generate road networks and lot layouts, minimize earthworks, classify the vegetation a site can support, simulate how an ecosystem performs over multi-year horizons, and optimize a design against cost and ecological outcomes.
Today, our own team operates those tools. The next step is a product that our clients operate themselves, and we are seeking a UX / UI Designer to design it.
Role Overview
OXMAN is seeking a UX / UI Designer to join the EDEN team as its first product designer, turning a set of proven computational methods, developed on client projects by in-house specialists, into interactive web products.
This role sits at the intersection of interactive web design, spatial data and generative technology. The UX / UI Designer will own wireframing, visual prototyping and user experience design for a web platform that lets a non-expert explore how architectural site design can be optimized through ecosystem engineering, using spatial AI modeling. They will work closely with EDEN leadership, software engineers and data scientists to build that platform. The role is hands-on: the designer creates the first version of the product themselves, and the decisions they make will shape how EDEN’s technology is experienced for years.
Most product designers join a company that already has a product, a user and a backlog. This role joins one that has the technology and the clients but not yet the product. EDEN has spent several years as a tech-enabled design and engineering service, embedding with clients, using its own tools on their sites and learning what those tools need to become. The ideal candidate will turn that experience into a product, and the interface they build will decide whether a technology that works in EDEN’s hands works in its clients’ hands.
This role is based on-site in the EDEN office in New York City.
Key Responsibilities
Define the product: Work with EDEN’s applied technology team and the clients they embed with to understand how sites are designed, topography is reshaped and ecosystems are engineered today. Turn that into a clear picture of who the first user is and how they use EDEN’s tools to get their job done.
Design the interface to a generative design engine: EDEN’s technology searches over thousands of possible designs for a site, scores them against ecological and economic outcomes, and returns the best. Design how a user states what they want, how they read the result and how they steer it, including the goals they can set, the constraints they can lock, the trade-offs they can see, and the moments when they need to trust a number.
Make complex spatial and scientific data legible: Design the maps, 3D views, charts and comparisons that let someone who is not a scientist or a designer understand a site and a proposal at a glance, across topography, hydrology, vegetation, microclimate and cost.
Build the design foundation: Establish the design system, component library and interaction patterns for a product that will span multiple industries, and work with engineering to make sure what is designed is what ships.
Prototype and test with real users: Put rough work in front of clients early, run the sessions, synthesize the findings and change the product in response.
Key Goals & Outcomes
First 90 days:
Review the current suite of web demos to help create a design guide.
Embed with the Applied Technology team on a live client project to learn how EDEN’s specialists use the current tools, where they spend their time and what clients ask for.
Map the end-to-end user journey for the first product vertical, from site data to a validated design, and identify every step where the current workflow still needs EDEN’s team in the room.
Deliver the first design of the core product flow, prototyped and tested with at least one client.
Establish the design system and the working rhythm with engineering, including how designs are specified, reviewed and shipped.
A clear definition of EDEN’s first user and how they use its tools to get their job done.
An interface that lets non-experts state goals, lock constraints, see trade-offs and trust the results of a generative design engine.
Spatial and scientific data presented so that a non-specialist can understand a site and a proposal at a glance.
A design system, component library and interaction patterns that scale across industries, with what is designed matching what ships.
A product that EDEN’s clients can operate themselves, so that a technology that works in EDEN’s hands works in theirs.
Required Experience
5 to 7 years of product design experience, including at least one complex B2B or technical product designed from early stage to deployment.
Strong craft across interactive web design, information architecture, visual clarity and prototyping, demonstrated through a portfolio of work.
Experience designing for data, such as maps, spatial information, dashboards, simulation outputs, or scientific and engineering tools.
A habit of working directly with engineers and testing with users before the design is finished.
Fluency in Figma and clear writing for an audience of engineers, scientists, designers and clients.
Preferred Experience
Experience with 3D, GIS, CAD or geospatial interfaces.
Experience designing products built on generative, AI or optimization systems, where the output is not fully predictable and the user needs to steer it and trust it.
Experience designing tools for architecture, engineering, construction, real estate development or land management.
Front-end prototyping ability.
A background or real interest in landscape, ecology or the built environment. This isn’t required, but the role is surrounded by it, and EDEN wants people on the team who care about both design and ecosystems.
Technical Skills
Fluency in Figma.
Interactive web design, information architecture, visual design and prototyping.
Data and spatial visualization design, including maps, 3D views, charts, dashboards and comparisons.
Design systems, including component libraries and interaction patterns built to scale across industries.
User research and usability testing, including running sessions with clients and turning findings into product changes.
Working with engineering to specify, review and ship designs.
Front-end prototyping (preferred).
Essential Qualities
User-centered: puts rough work in front of real users early and changes the product in response.
Clear communicator: writes clearly for engineers, scientists, designers and clients.
Hands-on builder: designs the first version of the product personally and owns the decisions that shape it.
Comfortable with ambiguity: able to define a product where the technology and clients exist but the product does not yet.
Engineering partner: works directly with engineers so that what is designed is what ships.
Curious about the domain: eager to learn how sites are designed and ecosystems are engineered, and cares about both design and ecosystems.