What the role involves
What You’ll Do
Own core surfaces.
Design and evolve the heart of the Candle experience. This includes the daily challenges, streaks, games, onboarding, discovery, notifications, and more.
Think in systems.
Craft emotional loops, streak mechanics, reward systems, and connection rituals that drive daily engagement.
Ship end-to-end.
From concept → prototype → polished UI → shipped feature. You’ll work directly with founders and engineers to bring ideas live fast.
Invent new formats, design to market
Design new interaction patterns for connection and marketing: collaborative canvases, async voice, micro-games, emotional check-ins, rituals, etc.
Obsess over details.
Typography, motion, haptics, micro-interactions, empty states, streak animations, the small things matter here a lot. Every pixel is questioned.
What We’re Looking For
2+ years designing and shipping consumer mobile products
A portfolio that shows taste, restraint, and strong interaction thinking
Deep understanding of mobile UX patterns and emotional design
Strong Figma skills (components, systems, prototyping)
Ability to prototype interactive flows (bonus: React Native, SwiftUI, Framer, ProtoPie, etc.)
High product intuition, you can think like a PM when needed
You care about user psychology
Bonus if
- You’ve worked on social, gaming, or habit-forming products
- You’ve built and shipped your own app
- Have done animations with Rive
Why This Is Different
- You’ll work directly with founders and exited founders (Apple, Twitter, NASA engineers, Forbes 30u30 )
- Your work will be seen by hundreds of thousands within days
- We ship fast, experiments go live weekly
- We care deeply about emotional impact, not vanity metrics
- You’ll help define the design language of a generational consumer brand
If you want to design something people use every single day with someone they love, this is that opportunity.
What they ask for
About Candle
Most relationships, romantic or platonic, don’t end in one moment, they drift apart over time. Missed check-ins, surface-level conversations, busy lives, and routines replace real connection. Candle helps couples and friends stay close through 1-minute daily rituals that bring back presence, play, and curiosity. Candle gives couples and friends a daily, low-pressure game designed to create emotional momentum: the most essential, and often most neglected, ingredient in long-term connection. What started as a swipeable questions game has grown into a full platform and private space for your relationship: - Daily Prompts & Games: Thoughtful, funny, and unexpected questions, couple quizzes, audio and photo challenges that update and adapt monthly - Shared Canvas Widget: Leave notes, doodles, or drawings right on each other’s home screen - Now in beta: Date Ideas Swiping**: Get 60 curated date ideas based on your area (yes, even San Francisco :)), updated weekly. Swipe to match on what you both want to try. From pop-up events to hidden gems, it’s the easiest way to try something new together or even with friends or family! We’d love feedback here! - Streaks & Shared Progress — Build accountability and a shared rhythm - Adaptive Decks: Smarter, more relevant questions over time - Shared Photo Albums & Memories: Keep track of all your photos and logged memories
Full Candle profile