AI design engineer

About Plankore

Plankore is a VC-funded US-based startup building AI that truly understands construction blueprints, not just pixels, but structure, intent, and cross-sheet reasoning.

Construction blueprints are the system of record for a $13T industry, yet today's tools still rely on manual tracing or shallow automation. We're building a multimodal reasoning layer that can read plans, legends, notes, and sections to produce trustworthy quantity takeoffs for contractors and suppliers.

Plankore is a daily-use system for contractors making high-stakes decisions. Accuracy, usability, and trust matter.

The role

You will own Plankore's Design System end to end, from auditing what we have today, to making every screen comply, to enforcing the rules so new features stay compliant. You'll use AI tools (Claude, Cursor, Copilot) as a core part of how you audit, sweep, and enforce.

You may be an AI Design Engineer, or a front-end engineer with strong AI and design skills, both fit.

You will work directly with our US-based CEO, dual US/Vietnam-based CTO, and core engineering team in a focused, high-impact part-time capacity (~20 hours a week).

What you'll own

1. Full audit + Design System. Audit our current apps (using Claude) and complete the Design System from the findings, one source of truth for every screen and interaction.
2. Full apps sweep. Bring the entire product in line with the approved Design System, screen by screen.
3. Enforce the Design System and contracts. Use Storybook, Claude, GitHub checks, and similar tooling so engineers who push new features follow the Design System by default.
4. Maintenance and regular audit. Audit new interactions for compliance, and update the Design System when new interaction or design patterns emerge.

What we're looking for

• Experience: 5+ years bridging visual UI/UX design, design systems engineering, and frontend architecture, or strong front-end engineering with proven AI and design skills.
• AI coding mastery & context engineering (required): deep, power-user experience with modern AI-assisted coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot). Demonstrated ability to write system rules (.cursorrules), prompt frameworks, and programmatic guardrails that constrain AI outputs to produce production-ready, design-compliant code.
• Frontend mastery: deep hands-on expertise in React, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS (or similar styling systems), and component isolation frameworks (Storybook).
• Automated guardrails & tooling: demonstrated ability to programmatically enforce UI rules through design tokens, strict component APIs, static analysis/linters, and structured documentation.
• Design tool proficiency: fluent in Figma or similar tools, with an exact workflow for translating visual specs into programmatically enforced code structures.
• Eye for precision: obsession with typography, spatial alignment, micro-interactions, and scaling consistent design across a complex B2B workflow product.

Nice to have

• Experience writing custom ESLint rules, AST transformations, or LLM evaluation/testing loops for generated code
• Experience building canvas-based tools, spatial annotation applications, or high-density CAD/blueprint interfaces
• Deep understanding of web performance optimization and component render performance

Working model

• Part-time (~20 hours a week), remote, based in Vietnam. US startup, global team.
• Individual contributor.
• Direct collaboration with experienced US product and engineering leaders.
• Clear communication (English or Vietnamese) and strong async workflow habits.
• High agency, autonomy, and direct ownership over Plankore's frontend foundation.

Why join Plankore

• Shape the visual language and AI-driven development workflows of a platform transforming a massive global industry.
• High autonomy, greenfield architecture, and zero legacy bloat.

Compensation

• Engagement: part-time, about 20 hours a week, with the possibility of converting to full-time as the team scales
• Hour-based rate, competitive for Vietnam senior talent