What are the responsibilities and job description for the Design Lead position at Sun Day Carwash?
Location: NYC or LA preferred (remote considered for exceptional candidates)
Reports to: Head of Product and Engineering
About Sun Day
Sun Day is a tech-driven consumer carwash chain reimagining a legacy category. Founded by leaders from Blue Bottle Coffee, Modern Animal, and Square, we’re building premium, experience-first locations across California with ambitious growth ahead. We currently operate 6 locations, with our 7th launching soon, and are at an inflection point where design quality directly impacts customer trust, conversion, and long-term retention.
The Role
We’re looking for a Design Lead to own design across Sun Day’s digital and on-site experiences, operating at the intersection of product design, brand expression, and customer experience.
You’ll work closely with a small, senior engineering team and company leadership to shape how customers, members, and operators interact with Sun Day every day, from first impression to repeat visits.
This role starts product-heavy and expands into broader brand and marketing ownership as we grow.
What You’ll Own
- Product Design: Own end-to-end design for our POS, member web app, admin tools, and marketing site
- Brand Expression: Maintain and evolve our visual language across digital products, on-site screens, and all other customer touchpoints
- Design Systems: Build and scale a shared component library across multiple products and platforms
- Customer Experience: Identify UX friction, experiment with solutions, and ship improvements that drive conversion, retention, and clarity
- Marketing & Growth Assets: Support new location launches, promotions, referrals, loyalty, and lifecycle initiatives
What You’ll Work On
- Reimagining our POS and core product surfaces used across every Sun Day location
- Designing intelligent on-site screens and customer-facing experiences that adapt in real time
- Creating seamless, AI-assisted member onboarding, management, and recovery flows
- Building internal tools and workflows that help teams run smarter, more efficient locations
- Designing systems for offers, loyalty, referrals, and promotions that drive long-term membership growth Requirements
Experience & Skills
- 4 years of product design experience, ideally on consumer-facing products
- Strong portfolio showing product thinking and visual taste
- Deep proficiency in Figma
- Experience designing for mobile screens
- Familiarity with design systems and scalable components
- Ability to clearly articulate design decisions and tradeoffs
Mindset
- Thrives in small, fast-moving teams with real ownership
- Comfortable with ambiguity and setting direction where none exists
- Has strong opinions, but iterates quickly and pragmatically
- Excited to modernize a traditional, physical-world business through software and design
Bonus Points
- Experience with retail, hospitality, or location-based businesses
- Familiarity with POS or operational software
- Adobe Creative Suite experience
- Early-stage startup background
What We Offer
- Competitive salary and equity
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
- Flexible PTO
- Real ownership and influence over product and brand direction
- Free car washes at any Sun Day location
Next Steps
You’ll work directly with the CEO and Head of Product and Engineering to establish design foundations, ship meaningful improvements quickly, and help define what great design looks like at Sun Day.
If you’re excited about building thoughtful, high-impact design in a physical digital business, we’d love to see your work.