Creative Operations Designer (New Grad)

Why This Role Exists

Creative & multimodal AI can’t be evaluated with accuracy metrics.

Contra Labs is becoming the public authority on “is this good?” — and that requires taste, judgment, and relentless execution.

This role exists to operationalize taste.

You’ll work at the intersection of design, research, and go-to-market, helping turn benchmarks, evaluations, and human judgment into artifacts the AI world actually pays attention to — screenshots, charts, PDFs, posts, and launch moments.

What You’ll Work On

You’ll partner directly with Contra Labs leadership across four core GTM surfaces:

1. Benchmark & Research Artifacts

• Design visual summaries of Creative Arena evaluations
• Turn raw eval outputs into:
  • charts
  • scorecards
  • comparison visuals
  • “why this is good / bad” breakdowns
• Help make research shareable, legible, and opinionated

2. Launch Assets

• Support Contra Labs and Creative Arena launches
• Design:
  • benchmark landing pages
  • short PDFs and research briefs
  • social-first visuals (screenshots > links)
• Help translate “research lab energy” into a coherent visual system

3. Creative Dataset Packaging

• Help package Golden Data Sets:
  • UI quality examples
  • image and motion taste clusters
  • design-to-code alignment examples
• Create small, pristine public slices that act as credibility signals

4. Distribution Ops

• Support ongoing drops on X:
  • benchmark screenshots
  • leaderboard updates
  • visual explainers
• Help maintain visual consistency across founders, Labs account, and site

What This Role Is (and Is Not)

• This role is:
  • Design + ops + judgment
  • High-context, fast-iteration work
  • Close exposure to founders, research leads, and model labs
  • A front-row seat to how AI companies evaluate creative quality
• This role is not:
  • A pure marketing role
  • A pixel-pushing production job
  • A traditional agency or brand design role

Who We’re Looking For

We’re looking for a new grad or early-career designer who:

• Has strong visual taste and knows when something feels off
• Can turn messy inputs into clean, clear outputs
• Is excited by research, systems, and evaluation — not just aesthetics
• Moves fast and learns faster
• Is opinionated, curious, and not precious

You might be a great fit if you:

• Love design systems and breaking them
• Are obsessed with screenshots, charts, and “explain it in one image”
• Care about AI, but care more about quality than hype
• Want to learn how products and research actually go to market

Tools You’ll Likely Use

• Figma
• Framer
• Flora
• Notion
• Basic data visualization tools
• (Bonus) You are proficient in motion or lightweight video tools

What You’ll Learn

• How creative AI models are evaluated in practice
• How benchmarks become distribution
• How to ship research without hiding behind PDFs
• How early-stage GTM actually works at a frontier company
• How taste becomes a competitive advantage

Other:

• Based in NYC, USA
• Fully in person/office (Williamsburg) - 5x per week

Total Comp:

• $80k - 100k
• Medical, Dental, Vision Benefits
• 401k Matching
• We will provide you with a company laptop on your start date

Interview Process

• Interview with the Recruiting Team (30 minutes)
• Interview with Hiring Manager (30 minutes)
• Interview with VP of Product + VP of Brand Design (45 minutes)
• Paid Case Study + Presentation (45 minutes)

Note: Contra communicates with applicants through @contra.com domains only. We never ask for money from potential employees. For the latest job postings, visit Contra Careers.