Senior Staff Product Designer, Core
Job description
About Apartment List
Apartment List is rethinking renting from the ground up: agentic search, personalized matching, guidance a renter can trust. Core is where all of that reaches a renter. It's our largest product surface, spanning ApartmentList.com, mobile web, and native iOS and Android, and it's where the company's biggest bets have to hold up on a real device in a renter's hand. This role leads that surface.This is a hands-on seat. You'll work with product and engineering to decide what Core takes on, then make it yourself: design it, prototype it in code, and hand engineering something they can build from. You'll make the case for where Core goes next, too. We hire on what you've shipped and the bar you hold everyone else to.The Job
Lead Core, end to end
- Lead the renter experience across web, mobile web, and native iOS and Android. You're accountable for its coherence, quality, and direction.
- Balance maintenance and invention. Core carries real traffic and real revenue, so you improve what exists as much as you build what's next, and you know which one a given week calls for.
- Set the craft bar: visual, interaction, and systems. Create the patterns and standards other senior designers calibrate against.
Build AI-forward
- Prototype in Cursor and Claude Code until it's functionally real, not just clickable. Wire it to our actual components, variables, and tokens so engineering builds from your prototype instead of starting over. Engineering drives architecture, performance, and the merge.
- Make AI a default part of how you work. Form a point of view on what's working and fold new tools into your process the week they land.
Lead through influence
- Bring a point of view on where Core should head, grounded in renters, data, and taste, and get senior product, engineering, and executive partners behind it.
- Find problems nobody handed you. Use qualitative and quantitative research and experiments to decide what's worth building, and change your mind when users tell you to.
- Mentor without managing. Raise the level of every designer you work with through critique, pairing, and example, and finish what you start.
What makes you right for this
Must Haves
- 10+ years designing digital products, owning ambiguous, cross-functional problems with minimal direction.
- You build with AI in real work. You've shipped working prototypes or production code with tools like Cursor or Claude Code, and you can say what the AI got right, where it fell short, and how you validated it.
- You've shipped on both web and native mobile, and you think mobile-first.
- Your work has scaled beyond you. A framework, pattern library, starter kit, or standard that other designers or teams adopted. We look at scope, not title.
- Craft you can show: Figma fluency (auto layout, components, variables, systems), plus visual design, typography, interaction, and motion that others copy.
- You act without being told: you spot problems, decide, follow through to resolution, and know when to say no.
Nice to have
- A two-sided marketplace at real scale.
- Partnering directly with C-suite leaders on product direction.
- A side project taken from idea to launch
Here's the Pay Range:
At Apartment List, we carefully consider a variety of factors to determine compensation for each position, including the role, level, and work. The US base salary range for this position is:- Zone 1: $222,000 - $269,000 TTC (including $195,600 - $237,000 base salary) + equity
- Zone 2: $205,000 - $249,000 TTC (including $181,000 - $219,000 base salary) + equity
- Zone 3: $189,000 - $229,000 TTC (including $166,000 - $201,000 base salary) + equity
Skills mentioned

At Apartment List, our mission is to find you a home and our method is trust and transparency. With tons of homes and apartments for rent in almost every state, city, and neighborhood across the nation, we‘re here to help you find your next home. Here’s how it works: first, we get to know you. You’ll answer a few simple questions and we’ll find the best matches – just for you. Then, we mix and match your personalized results, making it easy to discover places with the perfect combination of price, location and amenities. From there, we help you figure out which listings are best to visit and eventually lease, showing you up-to-date pricing and availability, rent specials, and much more. After all, everyone deserves a home they love. What We Do We’re here to deliver renters a home they love at the value they deserve. Whether renters are embarking to a new city, in search of a quieter neighborhood, or making the jump to a two-bedroom apartment — consider us the rental matchmaker. We’ve made it our mission to revolutionize renting by making it a stress-free, simple, and holistic experience, connecting ready-to-move renters with compatible city living. After renters answer a few quiz questions, our AI curates a list of properties that pair with their lifestyle and must-haves — finding them a Perfect Match. Brand Story It all started when our Founder John Kobs moved to New York and had what he dubbed to be the “worst 24-hour apartment search in history”. Rather than dwelling on his experience, Kobs utilized this as his own personal “ah-ha” moment. Renting shouldn’t be complicated. Since that day, we’ve prided ourselves on exploring innovative solutions and utilizing AI technology to radically shift the rental experience, from time-consuming and stressful to quick, easy, efficient, and dare we say — fun. Core Values How we go about our mission day-in and day-out Go Beyond: We’re dedicated, innovative thinkers who show up every day to ensure our renters and clients get what they want and deserve. Always Home: With our round-the-clock AI technology, we’re here 24/7 to deliver an experience that feels just like home. Check All The Boxes: Your wishlist is our command — we find joy in delivering personally curated properties and even provide suggestions based on your list. Your Silver Lining: We handle the not-so-fun parts of the rental search and let you focus on the excitement of finding your next apartment. Do Better: We’ve set a high bar for renting and are committed to delivering on this promise for each and every move-in. DEI We’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture for every A-lister — but we recognize there’s always room to be better. As we continue to invest in DEI, we hold ourselves accountable to further challenge the status quo. From our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) like Black @ A-List, Women @ AL, API-List, Listos, and Pride-List, to affinity month celebrations and Give Back days — these are some of the ways Apartment List celebrates and honors diversity. Home Bridge Meet Home Bridge — Apartment List's social impact program puts our vision of "Everyone deserves a home they love" into action. To date, we’ve delivered 13,000 nights of free housing to families facing times of crisis — that’s equivalent to 35 years of housing! This a feat that would not be possible without our dedicated real estate and community partners. Virtual First Apartment List is a virtual first, 100% remote company. With employees across the US, we’re able to build a stronger, more diverse workforce and empower personal balance through more flexibility. Though we’re a virtual first team, we also believe in the power of authentic and meaningful human connection. That’s why in addition to our virtual events, we also host in-person meetups in different cities, both team-specific and all-company, on a regular basis. (Coffee and cocktails with your teammates taste so much better in person.)
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