If you’re starting your design career and want to learn by shipping real work to real clients — not by polishing class projects — this is the role. ColoredCow is a 12-year-old custom software company in the middle of an AI-era transition. We’re hiring the junior member of a design function we’re rebuilding from scratch.
What You're Walking Into
We are 25 people across three offices (Gurgaon, Tehri, Dwarahat). 12 years old. Bootstrapped. We build custom software for long-term clients in healthcare technology, the social sector, ad-agency operations, government think tanks, and education. Never as a product company; always as a delivery partner who takes the relationship seriously.
The honest part:
Our design function is being rebuilt from scratch. We have an existing designer (Hitesh, who started as a computer science graduate) and we’re hiring a founding designer to build the function alongside the founder. You’d be the next member after that — junior in seniority, but central to the work. Real client projects from Day 1, no greenfield safety. Our portfolio page and case study page on the site represent 2016 ColoredCow, not 2026 — both need to be rebuilt, and you’ll be part of doing it. Our recently shipped services page (coloredcow.com/services/) does represent the current shape of the business.
We are mid-transition on AI. Production design — layouts, variations, mockups, copy iterations — has compressed dramatically with tools like v0, Claude, Figma AI, Stitch, UX Pilot. What stays scarce, and what we hire for, is design judgment — even at the junior level. Junior here doesn’t mean “follows direction without thinking”; it means “still building craft, but already developing judgment.”
What You'd Actually Do (From Week One)
Week 1:
- Tool access set up — Figma, Claude, v0, Stitch, UX Pilot, Figma AI, our project management tools
- Meet the team (Hitesh, the founding designer once that hire is onboarded, the engineering leads, the founder, the hill-office leads on video)
- Get oriented to our nine active client projects — what they do, who they serve, where design touches the work
- Read the Design Function Map and the design system in its current state
- Sit in on a live client engagement scoping call
- Ship one small thing — a layout iteration, a component spec, a copy-decision rationale write-up
Month 1:
- Execute graphics and website sections across multiple active client projects
- Learn each client’s preferences, voice, and constraints
- Use AI in your daily workflow — not as a buzzword, as production
- Ship weekly deliverables; get specific feedback on every shipped piece (that’s how craft compounds)
Month 2:
Own bounded design tasks end-to-end — discovery wireframe high-fidelity
- handoff
- Contribute to the design system as it’s being rebuilt; document what you find as you build
- Learn how ColoredCow communicates with clients (we’re on Slack with US-based and India-based clients daily; you’ll observe first, then gradually participate)
Month 3:
- Handle independent client work on at least one live engagement
- Solidify your contribution to the design system
- Open the conversation about your growth path — what you want to take on next, what you want to grow into
By six months:
- Run independent client engagements on UX/product work
- Co-own a piece of the design system (component library, design tokens, intake template)
- Help onboard the next junior or intern after you
- Develop your own point of view on the work, and start pushing back on briefs that don’t make sense
This Role Is Not For You If
- You’re rooted in SaaS, Fintech, or D2C product design, or similar domain-specific work, and looking for that kind of work. ColoredCow does custom software for long-term clients in different segments. The shape of the work is genuinely different.
- You’re looking for a graphic design role (visual / branding / illustration / fashion communication) without UX or product depth. Graphic design at ColoredCow is supporting work done by existing team members; this role is UX and product-led.
- You can’t walk through a specific AI use case in your application — which tool, what was the prompt, what was the output, what you did with it, what you iterated. If you can’t write that in concrete detail, this isn’t the role yet. Junior at ColoredCow junior elsewhere; we expect AI-native fluency from Day 1.
- You want a structured environment with defined career ladders, layered managers, and a 90-day onboarding curriculum someone hands you. We’re 25 people, founder-led, mid-transition — not that.
- You just want a job at a startup. We don’t need volume; we need someone who actively wants to build design at ColoredCow specifically. Generic interest doesn’t survive Week 1.
What You Need (And What You Don't)
What you need:
- 0–2 years of UX or product design experience OR a solid student portfolio with at least one real project (not just class briefs polished). Internship experience counts.
- A working AI workflow — not “I’ve heard of v0” but specific projects where you used AI tools and can walk through the process tool-by-tool, prompt-by-prompt
- Genuine curiosity about why a design exists, not just what it looks like. You ask the user and business questions before opening Figma.
- Comfort managing multiple concurrent projects — junior designers here touch several of our nine active client engagements at once, not one at a time.
- Tolerance for ambiguity. The first 90 days have a known shape; what comes after, we co-shape with you.
- Comfort with feedback that pushes back. The fastest way to grow design judgment is to ship and get redirected; we’ll do that on every shipped piece.
- Direct communication ability — you’ll be in client calls and on Slack with clients within the first 60 days.
What you don’t need:
- A specific design degree. Hitesh started as a computer science graduate; we don’t filter on credentials.
- Years inside a brand-name design studio.
- Tool mastery beyond Figma. Figma is our default; everything else (Claude, v0, Stitch, UX Pilot, Figma AI) we train on the job. What matters is that you can think with these tools, not that you’ve already mastered them.
- A polished portfolio. We’d rather see one project you owned end-to-end than ten polished class outputs.
The Details
- Experience: 0–2 years (junior track) OR 3rd/4th-year design student or recent graduate (internship track)
- Location: Gurgaon (in-office) is the default. Hillside office option in Tehri or Dwarahat available as desired — periodically or for extended stretches; figured out together.
- Compensation (Junior): ₹5–8 Lakhs per annum, proportional to experience and demonstrated AI-native depth.
- Compensation (Internship): ₹15,000–25,000 per month + ₹8,000–10,000 relocation supplement for outstation candidates. Internship is up to 3 months; converts to junior full-time on demonstrated delivery.
- Beyond the salary: Design training subscriptions, subscriptions to leading design journals and magazines, conference attendance and design-community participation, access to our office library — any book you ask for, we get.
- Reports to: Initially to the founder; transitions to the Founding Designer once that hire is onboarded.
- Start date: Within 4 weeks of offer (notice period flexible, talked through case-by-case).
How To Apply
- Send your resume and portfolio to [email protected].Subject line: Application: Junior Product Designer — [Your Name]
Or apply through the form at the end of this page.
Your portfolio can be a website, a Behance / Dribbble profile, a PDF, or a Figma link. What matters is that it shows work you owned — even if it was a class project, a side project, or a freelance gig. If your portfolio sits behind a login wall (Behance-private, password-protected), please share an open alternative; portfolio access friction is itself a signal we read.
Along with your resume and portfolio, please include a 200-word note covering three things:
- One specific AI use case from your work — which tool, what was the prompt, what was the output, what you did with it, what you iterated. Be concrete. Class-project or personal-project AI use is fine; we want to see how you actually think with these tools.
- One thing you’d change about ColoredCow’s services page (coloredcow.com/services/) and why.
- One question you actually want to ask us.
Write the note now, not later. Strong candidates are busy, and the "I'll do it later" instinct is real — but the applications that get saved for later usually don't come back. 10–15 minutes is enough. Write it directly, not perfectly; a candid 200 words beats a polished essay that never arrives.
Even if you’re someone who started in a different field and moved into design — we’re interested. Our existing designer started as a computer science graduate. What matters is what you can do now and how fast you learn.
How Our Hiring Process Works
- We read your application and reply within 7 working days, either way.
- If both sides see a possible fit: a 30-minute video conversation with the founder. Not a traditional interview — a two-way conversation. We expect you to ask as many questions as we do.
- A take-home design task (around 4 hours, unpaid): a real anonymized brief from a current client engagement.
- Decision point. Then either:
- Junior track: A 6-day paid working period at the Gurgaon office on actual design work — paid daily at the equivalent of the offered CTC. Final decision from both sides at the end. If yes/yes: formal offer. If no from either: honest parting, paid in full.
- Internship track: Direct entry into the up-to-3-month paid internship. Real client work from Day 1 (internal-only projects have a 100% failure rate at producing retained hires, so we don’t put interns on them). Three outcomes at the end: convert to junior full-time / extend / part ways with respect and full payment.
Application Timeline
Applications close May 30, 2026. If we extend, we’ll update this page.
We review applications weekly. You’ll hear from us within 7 days.
Also Hiring: Experienced Designer
If you have a portfolio that shows ownership — shipping products, not just designing screens — and you want to build a design function from scratch, see our experienced role: career/ui-ux-designer. ₹10-15L.
