type: role
slug: data-viz-designer-engineer
name: Data Graphics Designer and Engineer
description: Owns the visual language, chart system quality, and differentiated data graphics direction for Dataface so product output is recognizably modern and desirable.
owner: dave
filled_by: rj
status: active
Data Graphics Designer and Engineer
Data Graphics Design Lead
This role is currently held by RJ Andrews.
This role exists to help Dataface make a leap forward in dashboard and data graphics design. We are building a new BI tool and do not want it to look like all the old ones. Dashboard, chart, and visualization design has seen a lot of stagnation. Some of that is good because standards and clarity best practices matter, but there is still significant room to innovate.
The opportunity is not just to make charts more attractive. It is to make smarter design decisions that improve clarity while producing dashboards that are aesthetically striking and clearly differentiated. To do that, we need someone with deep knowledge and passion for data graphics, genuine aesthetic taste, and the ability to translate both into a working system.
Dataface will already have strong distribution advantages and meaningful technical advantages over existing tools. Those strengths will get people in the door. But if we also create the most beautiful and useful dashboards in the market, people will not just use the product, they will love it and talk about it. That is the bar.
Qualities
- Deep knowledge and history of visualization best practices. If we make charts that merely look good without a strong rationale for every design choice, the data and visualization communities will reject them quickly. Any innovation needs a clear reason for improving on the norm and should come from someone who has done the work to understand the current state of the art.
- Aesthetic taste and capability. This person cannot only know the technical rules of what makes a visualization effective. They must also understand what makes it beautiful and be able to produce that quality consistently.
- Ability to produce a body of work. Building and maintaining an opinionated visualization theme and library is a deep and extensive task, even if parts of the implementation build on top of existing libraries. We want someone who has already built up experience and momentum here and can quickly produce an excellent visualization toolkit.
Bonus Qualities
- Implementation skill. Ideally this person not only defines the design direction but also implements and maintains substantial parts of it themselves, including through modern AI-assisted coding tools. Experience coding visualizations is a major plus.
- Evangelism. Great work becomes more valuable when it is explained well and shared publicly. There is a large audience interested in data visualization, and someone who can speak about our work, build excitement, and already has some following in that community would be a strong accelerant.
Scope and Expectations
- Own the visual language for charts, dashboards, and analytic outputs across the Dataface experience.
- Establish default patterns that are both analytically rigorous and visually differentiated.
- Drive the design and implementation of an opinionated visualization system that can scale across product surfaces and use cases.
- Partner closely with product, engineering, and design to ensure visualization quality becomes a product advantage rather than a finishing touch.
- Raise the standard for how Dataface communicates insight, not just data.